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[techy] Formatting a PC

Started by Miles, July 19, 2004, 10:13:26 AM

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Miles

How would I go about clearing my old PC's hard disk , I have a new computer which I look after properly , but the old one has bits of programs all over the place , because while I was in my "first computer" stage , I used to install programs without thinking and then delete them manually ,(but only partially I now realise.)

anybody know how?

It runs on Windows 98?

ps. if and when it's cleared , I'd like to put a good audio editing program on it , any advice on which is the best one to use for an amateur?

exit to the DOS prompt.

type FORMAT C:

It is scarily rapid.

as Audio editing goes - I'd go for SoundForge (which can be somewhat pricey if bought legit)... failing that CoolEdit2000 (or which ever the latest version is).

The benefit of newer version of these is that you can directly edit MP3 files.
But that's over simplfying it as you can do a hellofalot with these packages, especially soundforge.

Gazeuse

And don't forget you'll have to reinstall Windows 98 after!!!

Miles

Well that shouldn't be too difficult , even for me. Thanks very much for that , just one more question , I have a partitioned hard disk,  C & D  are the two disks or drives , I'm not sure which , so should I type FORMAT C: & then FORMAT D: or will format C: clear the whole thing?

thanks again

Speciality meat product

Formating will only format that specific partition, not the whole lot. If you want to alter the partions, use FDISK.

gazzyk1ns

You might be safe anyway, depending on your setup there, but I'd make a boot disk which will let you access your CD-ROM drive after a complete format/fdisk session. Then you can install Windows from the CD cleanly, and without hassle.

http://drd.dyndns.org/disks.html

Quote from: "Mr Greedy"Formating will only format that specific partition, not the whole lot. If you want to alter the partions, use FDISK.
yeah. and you can use Partition Magic later on when Windows is up.
far more flexible are easier than FDISK

Speciality meat product

Agreed, Partition Magic is a great piece of software, but you might as well just use FDISK if you're formatting your hard drive.

Miles

Thanks very much for those, I'll give it a go and see what happens, and I'll be sure to let you know when I irreversibly damage the computer.

Thanks again.

Bill Oddie

Quote from: "Miles"and I'll be sure to let you know when I irreversibly damage the computer.

Er... how exactly?

edit: Oh you have two computers.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: "Mr Greedy"Agreed, Partition Magic is a great piece of software, but you might as well just use FDISK if you're formatting your hard drive.
It might be worth me pointing out that FDISK is so ancient that it can't cope with hard drives larger than 64gb.  When I recently installed and formatted an 80gb hard drive FDISK was formatting and telling me it was 10.5gb.

There's an FDISK fix here.

QuoteSYMPTOMS
When you use Fdisk.exe to partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB (64 gigabytes, or 68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard disk.
The size that Fdisk reports is the full size of the hard disk minus 64 GB. For example, if the physical drive is 70.3 GB (75,484,122,112 bytes) in size, Fdisk reports the drive as being 6.3 GB (6,764,579,840 bytes) in size.

RESOLUTION
A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem.

Speciality meat product

I wasn't aware of that limitation, thanks. I've just bought an 80GB disk as it happens (for £38!), but I formatted it as NTFS as soon as I got it.

Lt Plonker

I suppose this is as good a thread as any, so...

I've been using my lovely 'pooter for 6 months now, and feel it's about time to wipe the slate clean and go for a re-install. I'm on XP Home and have no floppy drive. Does anyone have a preferred method of formatting and re-installing? What do I do about all these service packs I've been downloading, can they be backed-up too? How do I back-up all my internet related bits and bobs like email, dial-up settings, passwords and the such?

gazzyk1ns

Just something to consider when formatting a primary HD as NTFS - DOS can't read it, so if Windows says bye-bye in a permanent way then you could lose everything. The best you can hope for in that situation is having to put it in another PC and then backing up everything you want to keep from there, then moving it back once you've got Windows set up again.

Plonker: Make yourself a CD of everything you need, for example, all of these are free:

MS patches for Blaster and the other RPC exploits from their site
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
Kerio Personal Firewall
AVG Antivirus

Then format your PC, install windows, apply the MS patches, install the firewall, install spybot and set it to "immunise" - then set up your net connection, connect, and immediately configure your firewall if it's a "learning" one like Kerio. Now go to Windows Update and chose to install all critical updates. Then install whatever else you need and you're done.

Ooh, and shut down the messenger service (not to be confused with MSN or any other IM proggie, it's part of Windows) - Google, as it's different with most versions of Windows. In 2000, it's Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Services, then right click "Messenger", go properties, stop the service, then set the startup type to "disabled".

5 Knuckle Shuffle

Quote from: "Lt Plonker"I suppose this is as good a thread as any, so...

I've been using my lovely 'pooter for 6 months now, and feel it's about time to wipe the slate clean and go for a re-install. I'm on XP Home and have no floppy drive. Does anyone have a preferred method of formatting and re-installing?

I was going to write a little ditty for you here, but I got lazy so I scouted around the Net and found this tutorial, which is exactly how I do it.
http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/reformat-xp-alt-method.html

Lt Plonker

You're all so kind. Thanks very much.  :)

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: "Lt Plonker"Does anyone have a preferred method of formatting and re-installing? What do I do about all these service packs I've been downloading, can they be backed-up too? How do I back-up all my internet related bits and bobs like email, dial-up settings, passwords and the such?
When I reinstalled win98 recently I was told a really easy way to export your emails.  (I'd tried using export from one of the menus and it didn't work.  I hear it's a bugger to import back anyway.)

Go to Tools--Accounts and export each of your email accounts - not the mailboxes/messages.
Then you need to find the directory that OE is active for the mailbox.
It's some long url.  Rightclick inbox and select properties.  Mine was C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{********-****-****-****-************}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Inbox.dbx
Just back up everything in that Outlook Express folder.
Then once you've re-installed OE simply import the email accounts and copy those files you backed up back into the Outlook Express folder.
It worked for win98 and the person who told me had a different OS so you should be fine with that.

As for passwords, I write all mine down in a little book so I don't forget them, and whenever I install a prog I throw the downloaded file into a folder called progs then when I've got a load I burn them to cd, so later if I need to reinstall I have all the installer files.

Basically what I did was fill a folder with all my backed up emails & progs I needed to install.  You can then burn this to cd.  (I didn't burn them to cd - as I was upgrading from an 8gig to 80gig HD I plugged the old HD into a spare socket and installed the files from there.  It took me half a day to install everything I wanted.  It's a huge hassle but worth it.