I am tring to format a hard drive that has Windows XP. I have tried booting up with a boot/tools disk but it will not let me format c: It keeps saying that I don't have a c: I have tried making new boot disks and have tried booting with dos 3.1 disks but nothing will let me foramt c:. I can get to a: but when I type format c: I twon't let me. I need a simple solution to this very dumb problem I am having. Can someone please help. Thankyou. WillieWonka

XP was probably installed using the NTFS file system.... Either use the floppy that came with the hard drive...if you don't have it, go to the manufacturer's website & download it OR, go into your BIOS, change the 1st boot device to CD-ROM, then boot off the XP CD & format Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB * it's better to have a gun & not need it, than to need a gun & not have it *

right - you have to use windows setup to delete the partitions. if you have the commercial version of xp, just boot to windows setup, select 'install windows xp', then delete the partition. if you just have a recovery kit, then go create a windows startup kit with 6 floppy disks. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994

The above is correct… your drive C is more than likely an NTFS system which is not readable by dos without first ‘mounting’ the drive. An easier way to format this drive is with a freeware program called BOOTITNG. You can download it from just about any freeware site. It will allow you to work with NTFS or any other file system. In my opinion, you should get rid of NTFS and go back to the FAT32 system. This will allow you to work once again with DOS.