Reformating

[askia47]

I want to reformat my laptop computer for my dad, but I dont know what to do. The computer is a Toshiba Protege 7020CT. I dont have a boot disk either. How can i reformat the computer safely and efficiently. How do i do this?

 

[askia47]

can any one help?

 

[the_cobbinator]

Do you mean reformat the hard drive?

 

[Sony]

Yes, he does.

Goto the shop you got your computer. I got my computer reformatted for free by the Technician because I bought the warranty. But they ask you to bring the boot disk, so I guess I'm not sure.

 

[CDailey]

Make a boot disc.
Reboot with the boot disc in the floppy drive.
If you do that, then a command prompt will pop up.
Type "format c:\" (without the " " of course)
After it finishes formatting, install you OS of choice.

 

[Sage]

Well, go to your Applications folder, and go to the "Disk Utility" application. Then, just go to the "Erase" tab and select which reformat you want to do.

Whoops, wrong operating system.

(Okay, I did that on purpose... you know I couldn't help it!)

 

[CDailey]

Originally posted by Sage
Well, go to your Applications folder, and go to the "Disk Utility" application. Then, just go to the "Erase" tab and select which reformat you want to do.

Whoops, wrong operating system.

(Okay, I did that on purpose... you know I couldn't help it!)

Now, Sage!


How am I going to punish you this time? Force you to use a Windows machine? Nah, I don't really feel like torturing you.

 

[Viper_Maniac]

Originally posted by Integra Type R
Nah, I don't really feel like torturing you.

Do it anyways.

 

[CDailey]

Originally posted by Viper_Maniac
Do it anyways.

Alright! *Sneaks into Sage's house and steals his iBook and replaces it with a Gateway notebook with Windows 95*

 

[askia47]

Originally posted by Sony
Yes, he does.

Goto the shop you got your computer. I got my computer reformatted for free by the Technician because I bought the warranty. But they ask you to bring the boot disk, so I guess I'm not sure.

Can't do this (he didnt get it in a shop).

So how do i make a boot disk?

 

[Viper_Maniac]

Originally posted by Integra Type R
Alright! *Sneaks into Sage's house and steals his iBook and replaces it with a Gateway notebook with Windows 95*

Since you stole his iBook let me have it.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by Sage
Well, go to your Applications folder, and go to the "Disk Utility" application. Then, just go to the "Erase" tab and select which reformat you want to do.

Whoops, wrong operating system.

(Okay, I did that on purpose... you know I couldn't help it!)

And OSX will let you delete it just like that? Safe! For the Record, you can format any non-system partition in Windows by right-clicking (you won't know what that is, Sage! ) the drive letter, choosing "Format", and clicking "Start".

 

[askia47]

Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
And OSX will let you delete it just like that? Safe! For the Record, you can format any non-system partition in Windows by right-clicking (you won't know what that is, Sage! ) the drive letter, choosing "Format", and clicking "Start".

is that safe? and what happens when i press format?

 

[Shannon]

Originally posted by askia47
is that safe? and what happens when i press format?

It wipes your hardrive. That only works with non-sytem harddrives or partions. So if you have your OS installed on that HDD, you can't simpy right-click and hit Format.

And you can make a boot disk by:
Insert a blank floppy, go to My Computer, Right Click on A:\ > Format. Check the 'Make an MS DOS Startup Disk' and hit Start.

If you're using a newer Windows like XP, you should get an option to format the harddrive somewhere throughout the installation. If you're using an earlier version of Windows (95, 98, etc), when you go into MS DOS mode, enter the following:

format c:

That will format the harddrive, then you would go:

setup.exe - I think...

This will install the OS. Make sure to backup anything important beforehand though.

 

[TurboSmoke]

to make a boot disk using win98,

control panel>add remove progs>startup tab and make your disk there....

once its created (you'll need the win98cdrom) you can then
under dos format c: and choose yes when prompted..

this takes a few minutes

insert your boot disk and win2000/xp cd rom and reboot the computer..

the computer will begin to boot from the floppy drive and when prompted choose 'start computer with cdrom support'

when its started go to e:\i386\winnt.exe and that will set it up...windows will now install, it helps if you enable smartdrive in bios before you start....

if youre installing from the win98 cdrom, choose e:\ and just type 'setup' and press enter.....forget smartdrive here..

e:\ is your cd rom drive, remember that the boot disk creates ram-drive on the letter after your main partition and before the cdrom drive so if you have your normal configuration as c:\=hdd and d:\=cdrom then in this case c:\=hdd d:\ramdrive e:\=cdrom

once the system is setup ramdrive will disappear...

 

[Sage]

Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
[...] by right-clicking (you won't know what that is, Sage!)

Hey, I probably have more buttons than you! (My Logitech MX 500 mouse has eight, count'em, eight buttons. I win! And let's not even count how many extra buttons my Logitech Elite keyboard has.)