How do I fdisk, how do I format?

[Murman]

I'd like to see this thread locked or a stickied

http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/


This will answer ALL your questions on how to....

FDISK / Partitioning a Hard Drive
Format
Data Recovery
Boot disks
Install with out a OS

Hard drive capacity barriers
Ghost
HDCopy

It seems we get allot of ppl asking this question and I think we should have it readily available to ppl when they enter the forum.

[Ashdaw]

Good Idea too. Some Seasoned users forget that sometimes as well. Always handy to have a reference.. :D

[Norm]

I agree with Murman, this thread should be a sticky.

Everything a person needs to know about Fdisk, and Formatting is on that link in detail, and is a great resource for new and seasoned users. (If the time is taken to read it)

[Grimson]

Here's another:
http://pcsupport.about.com/cs/formatpartition/

[Ken]

Agreed and done!

Hey, if you guys want to assemble a thread of helpful links, I will be happy to stick it, close it, archive it, whatever...

We want the forums to be the way our members want them to be...And we certainly like to hear your opinions, comments, feedback, etc., as well as your help in making help threads, etc...

Just let me know!
Ken

[cybotron r_9]

:) Here are a couple more for anyone interested.


http://everythingcomputers.com/reformat.htm

http://fdisk.radified.com/

[mnosteele52]

I agree, this is a common question and EVERYONE has to do it every now and then. One of my favorite links for pc problems Hardwarehell (http://www.hardwarehell.com).:) :D

[Gamewiz]

I have known how to do this since the day I was born!:D

[onetopdog]

Hi ya all. I have used speed guide thousands of times for help. Like you all have poasted here. I have done all the fdisk and stuff before a few times. I got the help here. Well sorry for all the chat but I just reformated and I am trying to run setup the same way with win2k pro but no go. How does it work with win2k? Here is how I have done it before... Boot with 98 start up disk. fdisk and format and get the cdrom drive letter at the prompt and setup and enter and away 98 goes...

[ssjDoh]

(reply is very outdated...)

*wishes he knew all this before writting my sig (which geocities closed!*

[onetopdog]

Can you explain you reply?????????????

[Norm]

1. Fdisk, and format the same way as with win98.
or
2. The win2k CD is a bootable CD, you can change the boot order in BIOS to CD 1st, and boot right into setup.
or
3. Make the Win2K boot disks (or goto www.bootdisk.com and grab them) and with the CD in the drive boot into the win2k boot disk.

If you use the Win98 boot disk, you can go into the folder called i386 on the CD and run the winnt.exe to start setup. If you use this method, you'll have to run smartdrv.exe first or it will take all day. Smartdrv.exe can be found in any win98 install in c:\windows dir. Copy it to you boot floppy and run it after you boot up, but before you start the win2k setup.

Of course, you'll have to know how to navigate while in Dos

[Norm]

This page should help you, good luck.
Installing Windows 2000 from Dos (http://64.209.212.162/lycos/series/1,,5+30+26807+26810,00.html)

[Robot Army]

I'm sorry if this was already included in one of the many links above, but after fdisk & format, you can boot to command prompt, with CD Rom support, from c: type "md <OS cab folder>" - i386 for win2k, win98 for windows 98 or win9x for ME; then change to cdrom drive letter and "cd" to OS cab folder, then type "copy *.* c:\<OS cab folder> Once that's finished, change to C:, then cd to cab folder & type in setup, running setup from harddrive will help later on when you add hardware to computer or other things that need Windows OS components; it will, by default, copy them from cabs on drive, rather than prompt you for CD....:)

[stevebakh]

firstly you need to decide whether you want your partitions in FAT32 or NTs file system (NTFS). After this you can start by placing the win 2000 disk in your CD drive (set in bios if necessary to boot from CD) and then wait until options appear.. you should find yourself agreeing (unfortunately) to the license agreements etc... then you have an easier to use (and understand) version of FDisk. From here you can delete partitions, create partitions etc... then when you're ready to install press return on the partition you wanna install Win2000 on... it will then ask whether you want it in NTFS or FAT32... choose what you want then it will format and restart... after which setup will begin!

hope that helped! :)