problem with formatting my C drive

Hey guys!

I've been using my pc for quite a while, installing and uninstalling apps, movies, music, games. Just about any thing ... after some time it started laggin pretty bad, I got some apps like Ad-Aware to clean my internet files, defragmented my C drives and what not to stop the PC from lagg, but unfortunatley I think it's time to formatt it.

The problem is I don't have my Boot disk nor my official XP cd. Now is there any way I can formatt my PC without these 2 elements?

Any help would be appreciated.

P.S.
I'm latvian and half russian might have some grammar mistakes, dont pay attention to that ;)


EddY

Format C: in MS-DOS mode. Go to command prompt and type Format C: :)

wouldn't it ask me for some cd's or bootdisks after formatting?

Nope. All it does is format all the file's on your C drive. Doesn't need/require anything other than you putting Y when it ask's for Y/N :D (that mean's Yes for Yes/No for those who are slow ;))

mkay, and how would it install the WinXP back on and the rest ? Where would it get the info from ?

So my question would be do you have any other Windows CD's? If not then i'm guessing that you need to run down to the local Computer Shop and purchase a CD..
Then once you have gotten the CD just do as Spyder suggested

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Format C:/ in MS-DOS mode. Go to command prompt and type Format C:/

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And to make a Bootable disk just follow these instructions.

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To create an MS-DOS startup disk
The MS-DOS startup disk you create will allow you to boot into MS-DOS.

Insert a floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive.
Open My Computer, and then click the floppy disk drive to select it.
On the File menu, point to the name of the floppy drive, and then click Format.
Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
Click Start.
 Important

Creating an MS-DOS startup disk erases all information on the floppy disk.
 Notes

To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
The MS-DOS startup disk only allows the system to boot into an MS-DOS prompt. The disk contains no additional tools.

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happy booting my friend :)

Windows is expencive to buy another cd .. is there any way I can do that without it ?

is there any way I can simply erase every thing that is on my PC and not touch the WinXP? so that it would be clean but the xp would still be there ? (sounds dumb)

Just make a backup of all your data that you'll need. Put it on a floppy and make a bootdisk as front2back suggested. You should be alright.

CoolMeEddY,

you can also go to www.bootdisk.com and download one from there to accomplish the task of formatting, however as front2back explained, break out the cash for the xp cd or have someone send yours back to you. (For this purpose, format means erase xp will be dusted)

cheers

There is no way to do it... I ran into the same problem. I have a valid CD key for Win XP Pro, but no CD.


What you can always do to save money is purchase an OEM WinXP cd... They're available online...


OEM is WinXP without the tech support basically.

Window's Tech Support. /me laugh's :D

god I feel retarded at the moment ...
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what you're trying to say there is no way I can do it with my Boot CD or my WinXP cd - right? At the moment I have no idea what is front2back


~confuzed

lol.

front2back is our member that posted on this thread :D

.:front2back:.

cheers

lol .. sorry front2back
got too cought up in the info, I guess I'll just call the guys that put my pc together, maybe they have some answers for me or cd's .. or what ever. the problem is we're 200 miles apart right now =(

Don't worry, nobody understands front2back.


You need a WinXP CD for the installation after the format. It doesn't have to be bootable though. What I ended up doing is copying an XP upgrade CD. I installed Windows 98, then upgraded it, I had to use a pirated cdkey for the upgrade, but then I just switched the key back to my legal one once the upgrade was done.

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At the moment I have no idea what is front2back

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Thank you for making my day ;)

alright .. I Think I'll do the same thing .. I went to this website witch showed me my winxp cd-key ... I'll give it a shot.

Haha. I did say I'm sorry man =)

Well if I didn't - SORRY!

k .. I'll go to get some sleep, it's 4:30 AM here = )

Thank You all for help! I'm pretty sure I'll be back to ya'll :) Great Forum!

CoolMeEddY,

And welcome to AntiOnline! We couldn't have joked around better with front2back than you did! :eek: The AO Forums are cram packed with tons of great information to help solve all your needs. So search the forums and as always www.google.com is a great resource as well

cheers

First and foremost, welcome you to AO

Can you borrow an XP CD from a friend (Never bought XP don't know if you can only install it once or what)? Or, you can probably take it to one of those computer shops and tell them you want to format your HD but you have no WinXP cd you'll have to pay them (obviously otherwise it isn't a buissness it's a favor).

like it warns you when you start format.exe. you are about to loose all data on your hard drive. press (Y) to continue.

there not fooling around!

so why dont you have retore disks?

have you tried rolling it back (restore) to an earlier time?

CoolMeEddY -
If I were you, I would definitely get hold of whomever put your PC together and ask them for your Windows XP or at the minimum - a restore CD for your system. Since you live 200 miles away - tell them to mail it! This should have been included with your system . . . something to remember in the future.

Do you have backups for the programs on your system right now? If not, do as Spyder32 suggested and burn backups. Once that is done, try deleting everything off your system except Windows XP and its updates. From there, I'd suggest backing up your registry, then running a good registry cleaner (Easy Cleaner by Toni Arts is good, plus it's free). It gives you the option of recovering anything you delete - but you must set up your preferences first. After cleaning your registry, try using a hard drive cleaner. Here are a few free programs that may do the trick for you:

Mutilate file wiper/free space
Http://home.att.net/~craigchr/mutilate.html

Shred
www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,273,00.asp

Eraser
www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

Absolute shield internet eraser
www.internet-track-eraser.com

If after doing all of the above, if XP seems to be running with less lag (it should), reinstall the programs you deleted, one at a time. Be sure to remove any programs from your Startup folder that you don't need to run all the time. Note any "lags" in system performance after each install and if you find a notable difference, you may want to check out the last program installed and possibly find a replacement for it.

Just my 2 cents worth, but hopefully it will help.

V.

P.S. My first system was running Windows 95 and I didn't have the OS disk nor a restore. I learned a lot with that computer and have a good idea of what you're going through. Good Luck!

You can always try Kazaa for a copy of Windows XP!

http://www.smartdownloads.net/download-75.html

Just do a search for windows XP you may need a key generator too if the CD key aint included with the download!

Burn it to a cd , format in DOS mode , make a bootable floppy as has been said, stick the floppy and your new copy of windows in, boot from your floppy and Voilla!!

You will prob need the floppy as it is easier than making the cd bootable.

First of all I would like to thank all for helping me out with this issue! What I did was what vvirtho told me to do, to cantact the guys who put the pc alltogether, I called them up, told my problem and they said they gonna prepare a cd for me, I'm going down there in like a week or so, I can wait that long.

It does suck though that u need the cd to reinstall the whole operation system after formatting instead of putting it into your system to stay foreva. Anyways, I'm not too big on these things so I'll just wait a little.


Thanks a bunch!

another website to checkout is driverguide.com, it might have some useful info.... but to format you just use Fdisk...

The Texan,

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another website to checkout is driverguide.com, it might have some useful info.... but to format you just use Fdisk...

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For crying out loud...don`t jump in and confuse the guy.

He wants to reformat his drive...not add drivers or partition the drive at the moment.

Hi, CoolMeEddY

Get the CD, as you never know when you might need it, but before you go to the extreme of reformatting, can you give me a bit more information?

1. What processor and memory (RAM) do you have?
2. How big is your hard drive, and how much available space have you got?
3. What AVs are you running?
4. What firewalls are you running?
5. What scheduled tasks do you have?
6. What applications are running?
7. How many processes are running, and what are the CPU usage and commit charge values ?
8. What web browser(s) are you using?

Have you any expired trial software, if so, please uninstall it.
Have you applied the latest service packs?
Are your audio and video drivers up to date?

What are you doing when you notice these "lags"?

OK, reformatting will frequently resolve the problem, as it "goes away of its own accord" but problems that go away of their own frequently come back of their own. And the process teaches you nothing about the workings of your system
:(

Good luck

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OK, reformatting will frequently resolve the problem, as it "goes away of its own accord" but problems that go away of their own frequently come back of their own. And the process teaches you nothing about the workings of your system

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I completely agree with "nihil" I have went through many formats and reformats. Sometimes I get so angry with a shitty PC and I just am like screw it and want to reformat. But as nihil pointed out, you don't learn anything about your system. For instance right now you have no idea what is causing the lagg....it could very well be a quick fix in the registry or a quick ram upgrade and you went through the long process of a reformat.

I would urge you to make sure you have looked at all the options.

My rents have XP home on their comp and they were complaining of a horrid lag. I removed all the spyware and virus' and it was still lagging I looked at the process' and realized that "svchost.exe - local service" was sucking up to 94% of the system resources. I googled got the answer and it is running perfect now (or as perfect as a machine can run).


- Adiz

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Originally posted here by Tedob1
like it warns you when you start format.exe. you are about to loose all data on your hard drive. press (Y) to continue.

there not fooling around!

so why dont you have retore disks?

have you tried rolling it back (restore) to an earlier time?

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He's on XP, and unless I'm mistaken, XP doesn't have system restore.

adiz,

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I completely agree with "nihil" I have went through many formats and reformats. Sometimes I get so angry with a shitty PC and I just am like screw it and want to reformat. But as nihil pointed out, you don't learn anything about your system. For instance right now you have no idea what is causing the lagg....it could very well be a quick fix in the registry or a quick ram upgrade and you went through the long process of a reformat.

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Quoted from CoolMeEddY,

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I've been using my pc for quite a while, installing and uninstalling apps, movies, music, games. Just about any thing ... after some time it started laggin pretty bad, I got some apps like Ad-Aware to clean my internet files, defragmented my C drives and what not to stop the PC from lagg, but unfortunatley I think it's time to formatt it.

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I think he wants to get rid of application bloat, start anew.

He will learn alot from reformatting and reinstalling his OS, CoolMeEddY...it`s very simple what you want to do. Study the task at hand fully...take notes if ya gotta...whatever...then just do it.

Atticus-

I am sorry if I misread his post but I thought he wanted to get rid of the lag on his machine. And I was letting him know that you don't always just need to reformat there are other ways around it

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I would urge you to make sure you have looked at all the options.

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and i thought i made it clear ^ that he should look at everything (meaning i didn't rule anything out) but sometime you don't need to reformat it just seems like the easiest thing to do.


- Adiz

Spyder~ Win ME and XP have system restore, the rest don't.

Atticus, he won't be able to reformat until he gets his CD, and that will take several days. He now has a chance to try tuning a lagging machine............could take many months for that opportunity to arise again? I am suggesting that he makes the most of it, THEN he can do his reformat when the CD arrives? It struck me as one of those rare win/win situations :D

Yes adiz, we seem to agree that there are two ways of going about it, and by just reformating you are losing an opportunity to learn how to manage and tune the Windows environment.

If I were at work I would just tell the user to save to the server then "blitz" their machine with a mirror of the standard installation. If I were in a repair shop I would do the same, you really don't have time to do anything else, economically speaking?

Just my thoughts

A hundred bucks says if he ran a complete scan disk and defragmented the hard drive he would be 100% better off than before. I also see the point you guys are trying to make.

//Edit

I don`t use XP but can`t you go to My Computer and right click to bring up the format option? When you have a disk handy to reinstall (obviously).

Atticus~

Yes that is an option in XP.

It's "check local disk" in XP rather than scandisk, but that then defrag is an old trick from back in the DOS/Win3x days :)

He still needs to get rid of the "debris" first.

Cheers