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Need some help.. Format Hard disk

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yslee80my
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Need some help.. Format Hard disk

Post by yslee80my » Mon, 22 Oct 2007 3:08 pm

Hi there....

Have a bit of situation here hope someone can help me. I have a 2 years old Dell notebook which perform flawlessly in this 2 years. Just pass the 2 years mark (which warranty end :( ), the DVD writer died as well.

No problem. I go to simlim and buy a external writer. However, i dont know i need to have internal writer to re-format/reinstall my OS on my C:\. When i try to reformat using external drive, i accidently install it in my D:\, wiping clean all my files which is not my intention at all.

Now im stuck with 2 OS (C:\ and D:\ ). And here is when i do the most idiotic stuff. I use Partition Magic to reformat my D:\ again since i dont need the extra OS. I guess it was a success. But then, when i re-start my laptop, i still need to select OS even though my D:\ is empty. I guess some of the XP file still in the D:\

My question:

1) How can i re-format/Re-install XP in my C:\ without internal DVD-Writer?

2) How can i reformat my D:\ to make it clean just like a baby? So that i no need to choose OS again


Thanks a lot... Cheers.. Leeys
"Dont dwell on the kindness you perform to others but always remember kindness that others perform to you"

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guruvishwanath
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Post by guruvishwanath » Mon, 22 Oct 2007 5:01 pm

You have, what we call as, an itchy finger syndrome. :-)

You are trying to remove selection of the OS during bootup. If you do a search in GOOGLE with the query "removing boot option while startup" for XP, you will find ways to look for the precise areas in the registry and the environment setup to remove the same. Or you can go to CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM and go to ADVANCED tab. Look for Startup and Recovery section (at the bottom). Click Settings and you will find the options that you are looking for. Now, this is tricky. If you decide to do manual editing of the startup options, it will open a notepad window with the options. If you delete the wrong one, you are TOAST. So be very careful when you do this.

Once you finish this, reboot and you will automatically go to only option available to start your OS. Check the operations (open files, browse the net, do some emails, play a game) etc. Then simply go to your windows explorer. Select D:. Right Click. Click on format. Select Quick Format and VIOLA! you D drive is clean and smooth as a baby's bottom.

Hope this helps! Do note, I am recommending based on what you have written. So I am not sure if there is anything else funky going on. So I suggest you take a backup or a ghost (Norton Ghost) of your system before attempting. Else, you will have to treat your system like a new one and install everything from scratch.

bigfilsing
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Post by bigfilsing » Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:00 pm

sounds like you're in a bit of a mess. My advice. Come to terms with the concept that you are goinf to have to install everything from scatch and don;t waste time trying to patch together the pieces you have now.

First thing would be to try to save any personal data ( and your favorites etc etc ) you can find to a usb drive or burn it ot a DVD.

next i would download a copy of Gparted. This is a legal linux disk partitioner. The good news is it's free, it has a graphical user interface and can format any disk to any format type you prbably want NTFS for your winXP install.
It's what they call a linux live CD so it runs straight off the CD without any instalation neccesary.
You might want to download and print the "how to" section fronm the Gparted web site if your new to disk formatting.
I would also download all the latest drivers from the dell web site and burn them to a seperate disk

Then i would wipe the whole disk and start again with the XP install.

Your problem is that XP alters the MBR ( master boot record) so no matter how many times you deleted the D:/ version the hard disk still see's it.

Let us know if you need any help

Cheers

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Dobski
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Post by Dobski » Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:06 pm

If it was me, I'd have already done what filsing suggests - wiped the disk and do a clean install. Then add my personal files from my external HDD back ups.
You end up with a nice clean PC.

If not, you should be able to stop it asking for which O/S to install at boot up by editing the boot.ini - it basically tells the computer where to look for the O/S.
this should help http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022
I've not done it for a good few years, bit it's not too tricky as I recall.
For you, it should just mean you delete the line that points to the D: You can problably identify which line is pointing to the D: as all of the numbers will be the same as the other line, apart from one number which will be higher.

If you happen to have a floppy drive or any kind of external storage, I suggest you change the boot order to look at that device first and store the boot.ini on there (it's a tiny file). So if you mess up, you can go back to the one on the HDD.

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yslee80my
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Post by yslee80my » Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:37 am

dear all,

thanks for the advice. Might try to wipe the HD clean first...

Really in the mess. But luckily notebook still can use...

At least if i dont bother with the startup problem, i might be contented with what i have now..

Hahaha.........

LeeYs
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ksl
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Post by ksl » Wed, 24 Oct 2007 1:10 am

yslee80my wrote:dear all,

thanks for the advice. Might try to wipe the HD clean first...

Really in the mess. But luckily notebook still can use...

At least if i dont bother with the startup problem, i might be contented with what i have now..

Hahaha.........

LeeYs
A clean sweep, will make all the difference, on a 2 year old computer, that has not been formatted before, although, are you sure you know what to do, it maybe much better to get a quote from the local computer shops, it should not cost very much at all, although they may try to pull the wool over your eyes, and charge for the time the computer is installing......at rip off prices, once the install operation is started, it can be left until finished, the whole scenario, should take under 1 hour at local rates, it should be affordable.......Generic builders and testers of computers, which i used to do free of charge, to gain more knowledge of the business, mostly to satisfy my inquisitive mind of how everything works can be quite a profitable hobby and pastime.

Many will try over charging, it's all part of greed and business in general, not only here in Singapore but world wide.

The problem being there isn't much control on people doing computers, a person that has a certificate for Microsoft Network, may know very little on actually building computers and troubleshooting.

Example brother-in-laws computer is full of viruses, I told him before returning to Singapore, nothing wrong with the hard disk, he takes it into the shop and tells the UK Microsoft Certified Networking Engineer/Owner.

XP cannot start up, because its full of viruses.......leaves it with him for repair.......Brother-in-law returns to pick it up, and the engineer had told him the harddisk was knackered, so he put a new one in, and transfered all the data photos, that he wanted to keep, to the new one.... Charged him 85 quid....When I returned to UK, I asked him what was wrong with the computer this time because it was playing up....he said it had never been right since coming out of the shop....

So I took it to the shop and asked him, why he hadn't checked the machine for viruses, because the last time i had checked it for him, there was over 60 and he didn't have any protection at all, to stop them..... I said you told him it was the hard disk, and even if it was, you transfered infected files to the new disk....what have you to say about that.....Leave it with him he said...


3 days later the computer was ready and he attempted to charge 75 pound for re-installing.... Of course I queried, the bill and said, you have certainly made some mistake here.... you have already charged him 85 pounds to put in the new hard disk, and you have transfered the viruses....You should have listend to what the customer had said in the first place,,,,because i had checked the computer and it was so infected with viruses, that it was ready for crashing.

There was nothing wrong with the hardidisk, and you have transfered the viruses to the new disk, you had charged him for, so you can whistle for your money! If you transfer any data from any disk, you should have checked for viruses before transfering, did you do it! Of course he didn't.

I advised the brother-in-law not to pay him the full amount, in fact it was his fault, It took a while, before he admitted that his experience, was in setting up networks, not troubleshooting... So there are in fact many microsoft certificates to collect....Which leads to cowboys in the field....but like anywhere, we find them even when they are fully qualified.. hence be careful to get quotes on repairs and some sort of warranty with the repair at least a couple of days.

No data whatsoever should be transfered from any disk, without checking it is virus free data first, one cannot assume anything, the job must be done by the book or the costs go sky high and joe bloggs gets the bill!

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