Cleaning up a harddrive

[jrichte2]

Ok maybe this is a software question I don't know. I have had pretty bad luck with harddrives mostly because I tend to do things with them and THEM find out if that was right or wrong. I had a Dell pc, sick of it so I'm going to build my own. I have two good harddrives in my Dell and would like to use them in my new one.

What I want to do is completely wipe out both drives, data and partitions, and just start from scratch. I messed up the windows installation somehow and when the computer started to boot it would give me the option of WinXP or WinXP. I don't know if this is bad but I don't like it. I have had lots of people tell me that I just need to do a format c:, problem is whenever I would start-up with a boot disk it would never accept the format command. I have also read in a book that that you aren't suppose to format new harddrives anymore and that's why they come factory formated.

Why couldn't I use the format, could it be my start-up disc? DO I need a 9x disc. I tried a XP and a ME (my computer came with ME). Should I not use these harddrives (at least the boot one) in a new computer? Is it just something that will make things real complicated for a first time build?

 

[TheMajor]

DOS cannot recognise NTFS partitions. Probably your C: drive is NTFS, that's why 'format c:' doesn't work.

Boot with your WinXP cd and select format during setup

 

[bobojuice]

slip your winxp disc into the drive and when it says to boot from cd press any key, press the any key. Then follow directions press f8 all that good stuff. When it gets to the part about partitions, delete the old partition, that will get rid of all your old data. Then just install and format using NTFS (not quick) and you're good to go. Have fun.

 

[ohGrFreak]

The "any" key, I love it.