i am trying to reformat an old laptop with windows nt on it. it won't let me do this though. i've tried istalling xp over it but it tells me i need the 5.0 service pack. i just want to reformat the hard drive now and start clean. yet it won't let me do this either. what do i need to do to reformat the hard drive on this laptop?

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/faqs/faqs_20000120_0000000036.htm http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;255867

'98 boot-disk Fdisk routine to remove partition(s) - (if the drive/partition = ntfs it shows up as non-dos partition); then reconfigure the drive afresh and then reformat for next OS. Fdisk will not remove ntfs from Extended partitions... only removes Primary partitions. (Delpart would be the util to use if Extended partitions = ntfs; see below.) Otherway: '98 boot-disk, to the a:>\ prompt; then run delpart util to remove all partitions; then '98 Fdisk /format utils to reconfigure/reformat drive afresh etc... de,part (patrt of NT3.1 RK - omitted from subsequent versions) free download variously... e.g. http://www.mesich.com http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/index.htm (27K-30K) fits on floppy easily. You can also add it the '98 boot-disk and save a disk change; just run util from a:>\ prompt regardlessd, and follow on-screen prompts.

ok thanks, i'll have to try to find a 98 boot disk, i'm sure i have one somewhere.

bootdisk.com for most M$ OS boot-disks (available there as images). Download a '98SE image to hard-drive; expand to a floppy - use that floppy. Get the image that includes CDROM drivers.

Don't expect XP to be compatable with hardware that ran NT. You might get lucky but the odds are in the favor of the house.