reset hard drive

[IBMan]

hi, my friend knew a guy who was really good with repairing his own computers and stuff but he couldnt remember how to do this but there must be a switch on a hard drive or a jumper like a CMOS reset switch type thing that resets your hard drive to factory spec, does anyone know how to do this? im not talking about formating, this is a physical switch or jumper on the drive. I dont know if this will work but now that i have had my drive on NTFS format, i can not put it back to a true FAT partition, therefore it will not allow me to install windows 9x. does anyone know how i can convert it back to a true FAT drive without spending any money?

 

[pumagt500]

No there is no such switch as far as im aware of. Do you want to completly wipe the drive?

 

[Charbo]

it gives you the option of ntfs or fat when you install windows.....

 

[ekÆsine]

he's right, there's no such thing as a reset switch or jumper on a hard disk. to use FAT again instead of NTFS use a win98 startup diskette. you can download it here: http://www.mbhs.edu/~jaosborn/boot98sc.exe

boot your computer with that disk. use fdisk to create the partition for win9.x or use it to delete your ntfs partition and remake it. any partition you delete will also delete your data on it. save your files before you do. use the format command to format that partition and you can setup win9.x

goto www.computerhope.com and search each command for explanations of how to use it. they have an fdisk simulator.

http://www.computerhope.com/sfdisk1.htm

http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm

 

[IBMan]

if i use fdisk or the windows NT install disc, it does not completely restore it to a true fat 32 because i cant install windows 9x, it says so when i start installation.