How to format a hdd WITHOUT XP disk?

Sime

Sime

Sime

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8 Nov 2006
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Basically i need to format my dads HDD so he can use the new CPU, Mobo and graphics card I got him.

I tried just pluggin in the hdd to his new system to format it but whenever I boot from the XP disk it just gets stuck on "Run from CD/DVD Drive"...

Is there any other way I can format his HDD without using the XP disk??

I can put his old PC back together if needs be to format it if someone can give me some advice on how to do it?

The ways ive read up about atm are

Win 98 Boot Disk - FDISK

Putting my dads old PC back together and just right clicknig "format" on the C: drive...but that just doesnt sound right...

Putting my dads old PC back together, formatting using the Windows XP disk and shutting down the PC after its formatted...
 
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Doesn't make sense what you are trying to do - if you need to re-format then you clearly need to re-install the OS, in which case you boot from the installation CD and you can delete / re-create the partition on the hard disk.

Make sure you're boot order in BIOS has the CD/DVD first and it should work fine.
 
It doesnt boot. I cant get into the Windows XP Installtion from boot. It just gets stuck on the "Boot from CD/DVD Drive..." bit... (normally it goes to the blue install screen)

Theres obviously some conflict between the stuff on my dads old HDD and the new hardware. So I need to find another way of formatting it...
 
Hmm- not sure exactly what is going on, however I'm thinking that it is not related to your hard disk. More likely a BIOS / hardware config I would expect.

Anyway, you could check by disconnecting the hard disk completely - won't help you install obviously, but should help narrow down the cause of the problem.
 
If you download something like the UltimateBootCD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html), then that will give you some tools that will help. I like the Ranish Partition Manager which is on there.

But booting to CD doesn't require the HDD at all (at least up to a point where the CD may want to write files to a disk), so I find it hard to believe that your issue with booting the XP disc is relating to an HDD issue...
 
Sime said:
Well i unplugged the HDD and the CD booted up fine, so it must be that...
Click to expand...

I'd start by checking BIOS settings for hard disks and boot priority, etc. Given that you replaced the mobo it is safe to assume there will be some BIOS tweaking required.

Bear in mind at the point where you have the failure, any data/OS on the HD will not have had any chance to have any impact so it must be down to hardware config.
 
Sime said:
Well i unplugged the HDD and the CD booted up fine, so it must be that...
Click to expand...

Are they IDE drives by any chance? If so, it sounds like they're both set to either Master or Slave, and having the 2 connected at the same time is causing a conflict.
 
have you tried clearing cmos? it sets everything to factory so don't forget to set the boot priority(cd rom first) afterward.
 
If you just want to format a HDD then just plug it into your own PC and format it from windows. I get the impression you mean something else though....
 
This won't really help with the situation now because it seems your problem is something different.

But the GParted boot cd/usb should let you format to ntfs :)
 
broona said:
Are they IDE drives by any chance? If so, it sounds like they're both set to either Master or Slave, and having the 2 connected at the same time is causing a conflict.
Click to expand...

This is the most likely cause, can't count the amount of times i've had to change the jumpers because they're both on Master/Slave...
 
Deff check your cabling, it will have nothing to do with what is on your disk.

You could format that disk, you will have the same problem, the Windows installation environment doesn't look at whats one the HDD until you come to installing.
 
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