Shoutbox

he wont know how to use that matty

quote:

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Originally posted by Demz
he wont know how to use that matty

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That is why I am going to write up an entire howto on how to do it.

Nice of u to do that anywya  

The following app was made by BelgiumBoy_007, visit the author's site at www.bartnet.be.

Copyright 2003 BartNet Corp

Note: I have just edited the code to serve our purpose here.

Step #1:
Download and execute this file. This file will display your drive configuration. If any of the drives File System is NTFS then you will have to do a different step when deleting your partitions.

Step #2:
Download and save this file to your desktop. (Right click > Save Target As). Insert a blank floppy disk. Make sure it is not write protected. Once you have a blank floppy disk inserted into your floppy drive double click on the file to create your bootdisk. Once your boot disk is created reboot your computer with your brand new floppy disk inserted in the drive.

Step #3:
Note: By proceeding through this document you will be erasing the Hard Disk Drive, which means that all data will be lost and is unrecoverable. I nor the Members of this forum are responsible for any damage caused to your computer, which that should happen but we still are not responsible.

If you do not wish to continue then simply eject the floppy disk and Press CTRL+ALT+DEL.

Now once the PC has rebooted into DOS you will notice that your PC is sitting at an A Prompt (A:\>). Also above this you notice that it says something along the lines of the following:

code:

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MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995. All Rights Reserved.
            Drive R: Driver BANANA unit 0

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This is indicating that your CD Rom drive letter now is R instead of what it previously was known as in Windows. This is only temporary so do not worry about it to much until later on in the document.

Now the following part will be to delete all the partitions on your drive. This assuming that you have a valid copy of Windows XP and not a OEM based PC that has a Recovery Partition where you tap a key on boot up and it will allow you to recover it.

Now earlier on I had you run a program that would say if any of the partitions were of an NTFS File System if they were then follow the next part. If there were not any partitions that were of an NTFS File Skip the part that is in blue text since it wont apply to you.

Now because NTFS partitions are not readable by DOS they are treated differently.

At the A Prompt (A:\>). type in fdisk and press Enter.
A screen will popup saying that you have a drive larger then 512MBs and if you would like to enable large disk support. Press Y and hit enter.

Now the FDISK Menu is up. and looks like the following.


The first thing we want to do is check to see what the partition table is like. So press the number 4 and press enter. You will see something like this.


Now if you have more then 1 item listed it means you have more work todo. Now if you only have 1 Partition like I do then it will be easier. At this point you want to be concerned about 2 things. The Type and the amount. You will want to remember these for the next part so go ahead and write them down if needed.

Now that we have them written down go ahead and press the Escape key on your keyboard.

Now that we are back at the Main Menu you will want to press 3 to Delete Partitions and then Enter.
The next screen you will see is as follows.


Now if you only had 1 item listed and its type was PRI DOS then then in this Menu Press 1 then Enter.

It will ask which Partition you would like to delete like it does in my screenshot below.


Type in the Number 1 and press Enter. If it Asks you for the Volume Label type in exactly what you see at the top in volume label and press enter. If there is No volume label then simply press enter.

Now if the Partition is NTFS or NON DOS as it would be stated in FDISK then instead of pressing Number 1, you would press Number 4 then Enter. Then number 1 and enter.

Now if you have more then 1 item (or partition listed) then what you need to do is the following. In the Delete Partitions or Logical Drives you need need to select option 3 until there are no Logial DOS drives to delete. Then press option 2 to delete the Extended Partition. (The Logial DOS drive deleting is the same as the Primary, it asks the Drive Number and the Volume Label)

Note: After you delete a partition you are taken back to the Main Menu so you need to go through the options again.

Wow! that took alot of typing just to delete those dump partitions. Now we get to create them. At the Main Menu Press number 1 then enter. When it prompts you to enter in any information just simply press enter. It will verify the size and everything then create it.

Now after you have successfully created your partitions you will be taken back to a the Main Menu where it says press Escape to Exit Fdisk. So Press Escape and it will say you need to reboot before changes are made. Press Escape again and you will be back at an A Prompt (A:\>). At this time just press CTRL+ALT+DEL BUT leave the floppy disk inserted.

Step #4:
Now much like last time we are at the A Prompt (A:\>).
Now that we have a C Drive again we can proceed to format it so that we can write information to it. What you want to do is the following. At the A Prompt type in format c: /autotest then press enter. This will format the drive without asking any questions which will speed it up.

Step #5:
Now once the drive is formated you will be yet again at an A Prompt. Here you will want to type in 2 things:
smartdrv then press enter
then type smartdrv.exe then press enter. Some text will appear and it looks like a help file thats ok.

Now insert your Windows XP CD Rom. Now remember that our Drive Letters start at R. So if you only have one CD Drive then you will want to type in the following commands. Otherwise change R: with your CD Drive letter.

Commands to type:
At the A Prompt: type r: and press enter.
At the R Prompt: type cd i386 and press enter.
At the R:\i386 Prompt: type winnt and press enter.

It will ask you where you want to copy the files from just hit enter. (It will say R:\i386). At this time you can eject your floppy disk. The windows XP Installation will copy all of your files to your Hard Disk Drive and once it is done it will say you need to restart. Once it restarts it will act as if you actually have the CD Rom inserted and go through its normal setup where you have to agree to the license agreement and so far.

Good Luck with this.
Matty

Images are Copywritten Me and were taken on a Windows 2000 Professional Virtual Machine loaded into VMWare.

This is one long ass document. I said I would write it :>

thats good info matty, maybe this should go into Sticky in the tech area?

I fixed my problem....thanks. Matty you put all that for no reason I did something...dont know what lol but it fixed itself. so thanks! and maybe it should go sticky

BTW, he could have formatted or repartitioned his hard disk from the Windows XP setup by starting it from the CD... He should have checked that the CD-ROM drive was first in the boot list in the BIOS setup (you can get there usually by pressing DEL when the machine starts).

umm, i dun think they would have thought of that Lopardo,

I mean, there is no need to use the setup diskettes, if you can boot from the CD

i think he did say he couldnt or wasnt having any luck booting from CD?