How do you format a hard disk in Win2000 pro?

[mynameisdaniel]

hi!

i've got this little problem here... actually pretty big. Basically my computer, with windows 2000, has been giving me lots of problems and i've had to reinstall windows. So i loaded the windows 2000 pro cd, and i wanted to clean out the other installations, but when i pressed D (to delete a partition), and C (to create a partition), there was no response, and nothing could be deleted or added! There's only one partition there, and no "unpartitioned space". There's only one "unknown disk", and my original C:\.

i searched the net, and i've got a little information on some fdisk dos command or something. But i can't seem to get into DOS, only the DOS prompt. I tried the rightclick C:\, and it says i can't format it because its being used (as i expected). What should I do?

 

[DugzDMan]

When you were going through the installation, did you have the partition selected when you pressed D?

 

[mynameisdaniel]

yes, it was selected (being the only option available. the up and down buttons had no effect at all

 

[DugzDMan]

Did you run setup from within Windows or did you reboot and use the 4 startup disks? If is was from within windows, it probably has the partition protected. Try creating the 4 floppy disks, then put in the first one and reboot. That should do it.

 

[mynameisdaniel]

what are the 4 startup disks? thanks alot!

i just did it on my fujitsu, it seemed to be able to do it... i think its a problem with the lack of unpartitioned space. The fujitsu had an unpartitioned space, while this computer didnt... is this the problem? then how do i solve it?

thanks alot!

 

[scree74]

Hi

The 4 boot disks are there if your cd rom is not bootable. Some times you do get problems trying to format a disk if you boot from cd "BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR BOOT SEQUENCE IN THE BIOS SO THAT IT BOOTS FROM FDD FIRST OR SOME TIME YOU CAN PRES AN FKEY FROM BOOT MENU.

Failing that do you have a win98 boot floppy if so boot to that and press shit and f5 when prompted to quit out to dos at the a: type fdisk and follow the onscreen instructions selecting 3 to delete the delete no dos partitions.

FDISK IS RUTHLESS so if you not sure dont do it as after a reboot the data is lost.
check out this link on how to create the boot disks

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win2000/Q_20568000.html