Formatting Laptop with Multiple OS (WinXP/Win98)

[driman]

I have an older laptop that I would like to format completily because when I installed Windows XP, it keep the Windows 98, unintentionally I might add. Now neither one of the OS works correctly.

I have gotten to the dos prompt and did the normal commands like fdisk, format etc... however nothing seems to format the drives, I do not care about the information that is on the drive.

How do I wipe out the drives so that I can do a fresh install.
The laptop is a Gateway Solo, and unfortanily I do not have the recovery disks.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[linney]

What you asked for is covered by the first article. The others may come in handy.


HOW TO: Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP (Q313348)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q313/3/48.asp

HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP (Q306559)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q306/5/59.asp

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp