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Could someone please tell me how to format my hard drive (C) on Win 2K?
I tried to install Win 2K SP4 but it corrupted half way through and now my o/s is all screwed up. Unfortunately I cannot uninstall it and reinstalling Win 2K is having no effect so I would like to wipe the slate clean and start again.
Unfortunately at original install I selected NTFS not FAT32 so my WIN98 boot disk (which is FAT32) will not recognise my C drive so I cannot use the format command on the floppy.
PLEASE does anybody know how to overcome this?
You will need to get a 2000 boot disk, or the set of disks. You will want to consider whether you have the Full Version of 2000 or an Upgrade version before doing anything drastic. You could searh around on the net for some disks and some instructions how to reinstall clean. These links may have some 2000 disk downloads.
http://www.drd.dyndns.org/fr_index.html?/disks.html
http://www.allbootdisks.com/2k.html
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Gday, reply no 1 can you give us a bit more detail...whats obvious to you is not so obvious to others.
Can someone provide a step-by-step..I am in exactly the same situation for different reasons and have the W2P boot discs for after the format but how do you get a format command in with NTFS file system? using a 98se bootdisk tells you you cant format c drive?? if you use the w2kpro cd where/how do you format the C drive?
cheers....cb
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If you're unable to format using the 98 boot disk then delete the partition using fdisk (also on the 98 boot disk).
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Boot with '98 boot-disk; run Fdisk util; remove all (the only?) partition(s); ntfs shows up as non-DOS. Then reconfigure the drive for next OS, and preformat if so wished (format util from '98 boot-disk). If you want/need it as ntfs (finally) you can either reformat the preformatted fat32 to ntfs during setup (you get the offer/option); or leave the intended ntfs partition unformatted and format it during setup; or convert preformatted fat32 to ntfs later from within W2K (or XP if that's the OS isntalled). Personally I'd preformat as fat32...
If you have ntfs in an Extended partition location then Fdisk will not remove it. There are various wasy to go about it, but the simplest in that situation is to use delpart.exe. T'was originally part of NT3.1 RK (omitted from subsequent RKs...). Freebie download variously:
e.g.
http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/index.htm
http://www.mesich.com
Boot with '98 boot-disk, at a:>\ prompt change to delpart floppy and run util; follow on-screen prompts. You can also add it to the '98 boot-floppy and thus save a floppy change.
You can use it to remove just the single Primary partition if so wished...
Fdisk tutorial:
http://www.compguystechweb.com/index.html
If reconfiguring the drive afresh, suggest you creat both Primary and Extended partitions; use Primary for OS/apps/utils; Extended for data only. This way you can safely (unless really careless) re-install to Primary - even reformat it too - without affecting data in Extended areas... Extended can be further sub-divided into two or more logical-drives - for ease of data access/organisation and simpler easier defrags. Primary around 3-5Gig is usually adequate for most W2K systems (and XP too?)
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First off, a Windows 98 bootdisk is not formatted in FAT 32, all floppy disks are formatted FAT 12, if you wanted to use FDISK, not sure why, you would have to go into a non-dos partition and get rid of it that way.
You should boot to your Windows 2000 disk if it is indeed a full version. This way you be able to read all partitions and Win2K will do all of the formatting for you. If you cannot boot to CD you need to create the 4 bootable floppies that Windows 2000 needs to boot. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q197/0/63.ASP&NoWebContent=1
Personally I would not use FDISK ever in a windows 2000 environment. There is really no need.
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" First off, a Windows 98 bootdisk is not formatted in FAT 32, all floppy disks are formatted FAT 12, "
R U sure the M$ '98 boot-disk (and all other floppy disks too, or did you mean all other boot-floppies) is formatted as fat12 as opposed to fat16??? If so it's news to me... (or was fat12 a typo???)
" if you wanted to use FDISK, not sure why, you would have to go into a non-dos partition and get rid of it that way. "
Fdisk util is used to remove/create partitions...; also to interogate/inspect a drive configuration (partitions/formats). A "non-dos partition" is how M$ dos/'9x boot-disk Fdisk inspections report ntfs areas...; they cannot see/acess/read ntfs - don't know wot it is - other than it's non-dos. M$ Fdisk cannot remove ntfs from an Extended partition - only from Primary. (On the other hand DR-DOS is alleged to be able to remove ntfs from both Primary and Extended locations...) In either case one does not 'go into a non-dos partition to remove it..'
I agree that one can use either the W2K CD or the W2K boot-disks either to remove a given partition, or to simply reformat; also to (partially or totally) reconfigure the drive afresh (similar to process with NT4).
If one has neither the W2K CD nor the boot-disks, cannot make/resource the boot-disks, then the '98 boot-disk or the delpart routines will do all that's required as regards removing the ntfs areas... In this case Michelle should have the W2K CD/floppies options available as Michelle intends to re-install W2K?
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