How can I format my hard drive? (W2K)

[JoshC]

I know this sounds like the easiest question in the world, but honestly, with windows 2000 pro, how can this be done?

I have one hard drive, which dual boots to Windows 98 ME (I know, yikes!), and Windows 2000 pro. The drive is converted to NTFS.

Now, I want to, and need to, format this entire drive and start from scratch. Windows 2000 doesn't seem to let me do that which in some aspects is understandable.

How do I do this?

[jdharm]

If you are truly going to start from scratch (i.e. bare, factory-new condition) and not 'port any data from the current installs, then the easiest way to do it would be to let the Win2K installation app do it.

During the install process there is a screen that asks you what partition you want the installation to go on. That same screen has the option of deleting currently existing partitions. Use this option to delete all the existing partitions. Then continue on with the installation. The setup program will ask you if you want to format the drive in FAT or NTFS.

This isn't truly 'factory-new', but it will wipe the drive for all practical purposes before the installation of the new OS.

Josh
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.jdharm.net>www.jdharm.net</a>

[sda]

I second that, its the easiest way to do it

[kef999]

Yup, just set up your BIOS to make the Win2K installation CD the first bootable device, then insert it and exit the BIOS. Watch the DOS-type messages that result and be ready to press any key on the keyboard, allowing the data on the CD to begin the installation process for Win2K. Just follow the onscreen instructions after that and you'll reach a point in the Setup where you can delete any existing partitions (including any bootable one) and recreate a new partition. After that, you continue with the installing of Win2K.