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How do I format a W2k Hard Drive?

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5 replies

by dkstanford

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I upgraded my computer from W98 to W2k almost a year ago. I over wrote W98 so that W2k is the
only o/s installed. I want to format the hard drive and do a clean install of W2k because I want to get rid of all the garbage that has accumulated over the years. It's not like W98 where I can just
put in my ERD and use fdisk and format. W2k won't let me delete the partition that the o/s is installed on. There has got to be a way to completely wipe out my hard drive and do a clean install. Anyideas?

5 replies

by acsmith

Boot off of a W98 startup disk. Run Fdisk and Format from there. That should get you to a clean FAT32 disk. Convert to NTFS during or after W2K installation if desired.

by dkstanford

I read that somewhere and already tried it. The computer is not recognizing the command interpeter Command.Com.

by ann777

Best option is to go into your BIOS and setup the boot order to boot from cd-rom first.

Then insert the Win2000 cd-rom and after the beginning setup phase, it will identify and existing partitions and ask if you want to use that, delete it etc. Go ahead and delete it and quick format (or normal format) and the OS will be clean installed onto the hdd.

by dkstanford

That's what I was doing wrong. I was trying to format the partition after I had already booted from it. Thanks Anna.

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