help with reformat

[Greco101]

WTF.....

usually when reformatting, it will delete your pre-existing info....then reinstalls it all to make it like-new. This laptop? NOPE! I chose to install a fresh copy and it said it would delete my files (GOOD!)

The when it came to the partition screen... I clicked on the partition and it said there was a copy of xp already on it! wtf!?

should i use wipedrive 1st?


EDIT:: Got it.... tried it again and this time it gave me an option "press L" to delete everything. sweet.

[Dilphat]

Did you try deleting the partition and then creating a new one? or yea u can get like third party software out there. and just format the whole drive. Hope it helps.

[jdbnsn]

I agree with Dilphat, I always delete the partition, create a new one and format that.

[Greco101]

I tried that and it wouldn't let me delete it. It got it to delete everything now though... I was wondering why it was still set at a high resolution when it's supposed to default at 800x600 then realized it just did a repair.

Dammit..... it installed another copy of xp... so it's running 2 at once. fsbniuvdn I HATE DELL!

[crenn]

How old is your laptop?

Your laptop may have a recovery partition.....

[Greco101]

It's not toooo old. I just bought it off of craigslist for 90 bucks... It's a dell inspiron 5100. I was hoping it had a recovery partition but it didn't. The cd drive didn't work so I ordered one and put it in yesterday... I talked to Dell a couple of days ago and they sent me all the recovery disks etc...

I ran wipedrive and that took about an hour or so... Now I'm formating the hdd. Everything should be a cakewalk from here on out.

One of the problems, the guy said, was the onboard sound didn't work but there were A LOT of missing files on the laptop so I'm HOPING the drivers just got messed up or something.

[SgtM]

ahem..

http://dban.sourceforge.net

--===**WILL IRRECOVERABLY ERASE ANY DATA ON ANY HDD**===--
-==Use at your own risk==-

[Dilphat]

Also I think Hiren's BootCd 9.2 has some software on there to format your hdd.