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How do I format my hard drive in NT?

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Name: Andrew
Date: December 19, 2001 at 06:41:09 Pacific
Comment:

I need to delete the NT op system off my hard drive. When I tell it to format c: I get a message "Cannot lock cutrrent drive" How do I get around this. BTW all applications are closed.

TIA,
Andrew



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Response Number 1
Name: pete
Date: December 19, 2001 at 07:42:43 Pacific
Reply:

you will not be able to since your nt os is still running, it will definitely locked from formatting. why do you need to format it? u can remove partition with fdisk. perhaps if you provide more detail, can help.


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Response Number 2
Name: Andrew
Date: December 19, 2001 at 08:02:41 Pacific
Reply:

I'm getting rid of NT and installing windows 98 (I'm giving the pc to my kid and he likes 98 better). Basically I just want to dump NT.


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Response Number 3
Name: Toad
Date: December 19, 2001 at 11:46:42 Pacific
Reply:

Boot w/ Win98 boot disk, use fdisk to delette nonDOS partition, reboot w/ disk and format c: drive.


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Response Number 4
Name: geoff
Date: December 19, 2001 at 16:51:51 Pacific
Reply:

It is possible that NT is installed on an NTFS partition which is not visible in DOS.
Download a util called DELPART and it will delete ALL partitions,(including NTFS)
You can get it from www.bootdisk.com
Put DELPART on a floppy and boot to dos then at the A:\ Prompt simply type DELPART.
Once all pertitions are deleted then boot up with a win98 startup disk and use fdisk to create the primary partition.Make it active then format it. (be sure to enable large disk support when starting fdisk.
You can then go ahead and install win98

Incidentally you only need to type LOCK at the c:\ prompt to allow direct access to the disk.



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Response Number 5
Name: Joe
Date: February 2, 2002 at 11:07:31 Pacific
Reply:

My friend has a pentium 2 mmx IBM and his computer doesn't start up anymore op = windows 95 , i think it was a virus.he only has a 98 boot disk ( don't know why 98). i can just acces A:/ , B:/(also a flopy drive)and D:/(cd-rom)
and the fdisk command doesn't work in his dos mode. is there any posibility that i can format his whole harddrive in ms dos and just install win 98?
what commands do i use to format his hardrive and how can i install from cd in ms dos??



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