merckx Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 I've got feckin problems accessing stuff on the computer, I've tried to do a fix but I'm going around in circles. I've decided to do a clean install and reformat the hard disc to get rid of everything. I'm running XP, I've created a startup disc which I boot-up from. It's giving me the A> prompt, but when it boots up from the disc it's not installing the CD driver and the Format file isn't present neither.(It used to work okay with ME and it's startup disc) How do I format the hard drive and get the CD drive working so I can reinstall XP? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 A:\> whats that if youve got the WinXP CD, just drop that into your CD drive and boot straight off it. It will give you the option to either recover an existing installation or start with a fresh one in which case you can choose to format your HDD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merckx Posted May 15, 2005 Author Share Posted May 15, 2005 A:\> whats that if youve got the WinXP CD, just drop that into your CD drive and boot straight off it. It will give you the option to either recover an existing installation or start with a fresh one in which case you can choose to format your HDD. Cheers imi, I'll give it a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merckx Posted May 15, 2005 Author Share Posted May 15, 2005 Doesn't work for me, before it can install XP it asks for additional drivers which I have on a CD. But it only gives the option(which you cannot change) of inserting a floppy. There must be a way to format the hard disc and have the CD and floppy drives still working, I could do this on ME by booting from the Startup disc. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardasaliah Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 GO into the bios setup . Press del as you start the system up. Find setting for start up drive and change it to you CD drive from A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Merkx.....is your PC booting from CD? if not, then go in the bios and change the boot order there to D (CD), A, C if you have the orig XP CD then it WILL allow you to resinstall a Fresh copy of windows by first formatting your HDD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 when you restart your PC is SHOULD say PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD at which point you press ANY KEY.... BTW: there is no key called ANYKEY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Rendar Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Doesn't work for me, before it can install XP it asks for additional drivers which I have on a CD. But it only gives the option(which you cannot change) of inserting a floppy. Presumably this is for RAID, SCSI or SATA drivers, having pressed F6 during the boot? I've had members on my forum post similar questions. One member simply copied the drivers from the CD to a floppy and then installed the drivers from the floppy when prompted. This worked, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkey Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Umm unless I'm being thick! .. if you just want to format your Hard Disk. How about ... at the A: prompt type in "c:\windows\system32\format c:" That's assuming your XP directory is called "Windows" .. mine is. But it might also be "WINNT" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Rendar Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 The problem with this is that you can't format the drive your OS is sitting on. Hence why you need to boot from a different drive. But this is further complicated when you've got SATA, SCSI or RAID devices. My solution (although overkill for this situation) is to have a multiboot system. I'm running 98SE, XP and Linux on my box, so I can always boot another OS when I need to do some maintenance on a misbehaving one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkey Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 If you boot from the A:\ drive .. you will be able format the hard disk. I've done it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 I would proceed with caution. Last thing he wants to do is format his Harddrive only to find that he cant boot from CD in order to load a new operating system. Dash - he hasnt mentioned anything about scsi, etc....so stop complicating matters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 If you boot from the A:\ drive .. you will be able format the hard disk. I've done it. Not if the partition is NTFS. As others have said boot from the CD (set boot order in BIOS accordingly), and only press F6 if you *need* to i.e. if you have an SATA or SCSI disk. If this is the case then you'll need to download the drivers for controller you have and put them on a floppy making sure that the file TXTSETUP.OEM and at least a couple of other files are there (the others being possibly in a folder). If you have SATA/SCSI disks and no floppy drive then you're a bit stuck I'm afraid. You can then do the format a couple of screens later in the Setup screen just after pressing F8 for 'I Agree' to the End User License Agreement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Rendar Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Dash - he hasnt mentioned anything about scsi, etc....so stop complicating matters Thanks for putting me in my place IMI! The reason I provided this information is because merckx said this: Doesn't work for me, before it can install XP it asks for additional drivers which I have on a CD. But it only gives the option(which you cannot change) of inserting a floppy. From this, I concluded that he has managed to boot from CD but requires 3rd party drivers in order to proceed. Perhaps this was the wrong conclusion... I'll shut up and go away then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merckx Posted May 15, 2005 Author Share Posted May 15, 2005 Presumably this is for RAID, SCSI or SATA drivers, having pressed F6 during the boot? I've had members on my forum post similar questions. One member simply copied the drivers from the CD to a floppy and then installed the drivers from the floppy when prompted. This worked, apparently. Cheers Dash, I'll give this a go. I was worried that the files were too big to put on a floppy. The reason why I want to format the hard disk and start again is: I cannot access my MSN Hotmail at all, when I try to do this I get this coming up: How to get to Hotmail Hotmail does not support the .NET Passport you are signed in to. There are two ways you can get to Hotmail: 1.If you already have a Hotmail account, you can sign out of your .NET Passport and sign in using your Hotmail account. 2.If you do not have a Hotmail account, you can sign out of your .NET Passport and visit the Hotmail Web site for information or to set up a free account. So when I click on link 1. it brings up the sign in window for .NET passport, so presumably I'm not signed in. I haven't got a clue how to sign out, I wish I could disable .NET passport altogether. I haven't changed any settings to cause this, don't know if it was an automatic update or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Cheers Dash, I'll give this a go. I was worried that the files were too big to put on a floppy. The reason why I want to format the hard disk and start again is: I cannot access my MSN Hotmail at all, when I try to do this I get this coming up: How to get to Hotmail Hotmail does not support the .NET Passport you are signed in to. There are two ways you can get to Hotmail: 1.If you already have a Hotmail account, you can sign out of your .NET Passport and sign in using your Hotmail account. 2.If you do not have a Hotmail account, you can sign out of your .NET Passport and visit the Hotmail Web site for information or to set up a free account. So when I click on link 1. it brings up the sign in window for .NET passport, so presumably I'm not signed in. I haven't got a clue how to sign out, I wish I could disable .NET passport altogether. I haven't changed any settings to cause this, don't know if it was an automatic update or something. formatting sounds a bit overkill for this. Have a play around in Control Panel -> User Accounts and look for "Manage Passwords" or similar option. This should bring you up a list of passwords which are associated with your windows username, including .NET Passports. You can remove the offending password/passport from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Hey Dash......seems like youre on the right track here......perhaps Merc does have SCSI hdd..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Rendar Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 formatting sounds a bit overkill for this. My thoughts exactly! Have you seen this MS KB article? It might help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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