Help formatting my hard drive

[Feis_Id]

I have an older HP Pavilion, i've formatted my HD before but I cant remember wich key to press and when to press it at startup, help is greatly appreciated.

[jaykrue]

1) Click on My Computer on the desktop

2) Right click on the drive you wish to format, whether it's the C: drive or beyond

3) Select Format...

4) Select

a) Capacity - generally you won't change this
b) File System - I suggest using NTFS as it's a more efficient file system than FAT
c) Allocation unit size - same as a) you generally won't change this
d) Volume label - basically just the name of the newly reformatted drive
e1)Quick Format - this will quickly erase everything on that particular hard drive quickly than a full format.
e2) Enable Compression - generally will not use.

5) Once you've chosen your options, click the 'Start' button.

6) Sip beer

7) Lean back on chair

[Feis_Id]

*sips beer* Thanks!

[Feis_Id]

Hmmm...."Windows cannot format this drive because it contains files in use by windows", after right-clicking and selecting format. Any suggestions?

[psiufoxx2]

Startup from your OS disks and format from the menu screen? or from the command prompt using fdisk? or don't format? I dunno..

[bradr]

Did your HP come with a restore disk (CD)? If so and you still have it, use that. It'll reformat, re-install Windows (do you still have the Windows registration code, you may need to type that in again) and most importantly it should re-install all the drivers you'll need. Good luck.

[SOSTrooper]

Hmmm...."Windows cannot format this drive because it contains files in use by windows", after right-clicking and selecting format. Any suggestions?


::laughs::

You cant format C: from windows. Do what bradr suggested, find your HP CDs, and do a clean install that way. The HP CDs will format, install windows, and install drivers (and unfortunately all the other stuff that you might not need) back. If you can't find your HP CDs, then you can also boot from an OS CD (not sure which OS you use, but Win98SE, ME, 2K, and XP can be booted from start up) and format your drive that way. You can also use a floppy boot disk (most likely a Win98 version) to fdisk and format your drive, although that'll require some basic knowlegde of command prompt and commands. So try those CD methods first, they're pretty basic and automatic, only occasionally prompting you to press a few keys on the keyboard to ensure you really want to reformat.