computer hard drive question...

Pescado guy · #1 11/04/2004, 06:20 PM

Hello everyone!

Okay here is my predicament:

I have a dell laptop and the hard drive has sooooooo much junk. most of the things I can delete but a bunch of programs say that I am unable to delete them because they can't be found. I have the operating system cd and I want to know if there is a simple way to completely delete everything on the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. I understand that I would also need the bios software or is that included on the operating system. Any help would be greatly apprecieated. I wish I knew more about computers. Thanks!!!

Kevin

serjuanca88 · #2 11/04/2004, 06:32 PM

The BIOS is on the motherboard itself. Reformatting will not change the BIOS at all.

You should be able to boot up with your OS cd and have it pretty self explanatory.

Paul79936 · #3 11/04/2004, 06:35 PM

What sort of OS CD do you have? Often on a laptop the CD is bootable and can return the drive to the same state it was in when you bought it.

If not, you need some way of booting the system in such a way that you can access the HD and CD without the OS on your hard drive.

I believe that Win98 SE had a startup disk that included CD drivers so that you can boot off of the flopy and access the CD.

Paul79936 · #4 11/04/2004, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by serjuanca88
The BIOS is on the motherboard itself. Reformatting will not change the BIOS at all.

You should be able to boot up with your OS cd and have it pretty self explanatory.

I think he wants to reformat the drive, and many older versions of Windows are on non-booting CDs.

Pescado guy · #5 11/05/2004, 12:08 AM

Thanks you guys.

Just so you know I have the windows 98 SE CD and the Windows XP upgrade CD. When I first got the laptop it didn't have any hard drive installed so when I turned it on, the BIOS came up. First I want to delete the operating system and everything else on the hard drive. If the BIOS is on the motherboard itself then that would be great. Would I then just install the opperating system just like I did the first time? Also I am still unaware how to erase the hard drive. Thank you so much for your help!

Kevin

Pescado guy · #6 11/05/2004, 12:11 AM

By the way, when I first installed windows 98 SE I simply went to the bios and changed the boot order so that it would boot off the CD drive. This would make me think that the CD I have for Window 98SE is a buting disk. Once that is installed I know it is very easy to do the Windows XP upgrade.
Thanks!

Kevin

pnosko · #7 11/06/2004, 12:00 AM

It's been too long since I installed Win98SE. If booting that CD doesn't give you the option to format your hard drive, you can do it with a Win98SE boot diskette. If you don't have one, go to http://www.nerdlabs.org/bootdisks/di.../wboot98se.exe (it should prompt to download), download it and run it to make a Win98SE boot disk. BTW, this link comes from http://bootdisk.com. Boot from the floppy, format your hard drive, then boot your CD.

Pescado guy · #8 11/06/2004, 12:15 AM

Oh!! I see. So when I boot off of the CD or the boot disc it should give me the option to format the hard drive. That makes more sense. Are there anythings on the hard drive that the system won't work without? Things that I need to save? Thanks so much everyone!

Kevin

masson · #9 11/06/2004, 12:41 AM

When you put the disk in it will send you to a screen to install windows. If you want to delete everythign then you need to reistall windows. When it comes up it will ask where to save it to . You can the fromat the hard drive with no commands and no mess ups.

pnosko · #10 11/06/2004, 03:09 AM

When you boot the Win98SE boot disk (AKA Startup Disk), you will eventually reach a DOS prompt => A>

You can then do a "format c:" and it will wipe your disk of everything. Then boot your CD and reinstall windows.

Pescado guy · #11 11/06/2004, 10:47 AM

Okay, just to make sure that I will be doing this right. All I have to do is insert the disk and then type in format c when DOS comes up. This will erase the hard drive but still keep the bios. After this, then when I restart the computer, the bios will pop up. Then all I would need to do is insert the operating system CD and change the boot order. Then restart the computer again and then the reinstallation will begin. Is that right? Thanks!!

Kevin

pnosko · #12 11/06/2004, 11:39 AM

The "bios popup" usually only shows when you press a certain key during the boot process. Some machines use F2, others F10; it depends on your PC. Sometimes it says on the screen which key to press to enter "BIOS" or "SETUP". It seems you know how to get into the bios setup as you've said you already changed the boot order. Formatting your HD does not affect your bios. Your general procedures above seem fine. If you need more specifics, you'll need to tell us more about your hardware.

Pescado guy · #13 11/06/2004, 02:39 PM

First of all I just found the origional Windows XP CD. When I start up my computer it says push F2 for setup (which is the BIOS) and F12 for boot order. After I format the hard drive do I boot off the startup floppy disk or do I need to use the origional Windows XP CD? Other than that I think that I have everythig figured out! Sorry it took so long and thanks for all of your help!

Kevin

Pescado guy · #14 11/06/2004, 08:19 PM

Nevermind answering me anymore. I finnally did it and everything works well. Thank you so much for your help!!!!!!!

Kevin