Formatting

Hullo,

I want to completely clean my old PIII, it has XP on it. I want to get rid of windows and all additional programs. How to ?

Thanks.

btw. in kiddy language please. I am not technical.

Go to Start, Run, type in command. It should come up with that black box thing. Type in 'C: Format'. It should ask you 'yes' or 'no'. Type in 'y'.

That's the simplest way i know of.

EDIT: It might be 'Format C:' rather than 'C: Format'. Try both.

:laugh4:
Dude, what's that supposed to do?
Self-destruction mode?
Windows can't format the drive that it's living on.

Mithrandir,
Start/boot from the Original CD, select the Recovery console
and type "format c:\" or there maybe an option to select.

Why do you want to do it? Do you want to sell it?

Another way of formatting it is to remove the drive from computer, hit it with a sledgehammer a bit, then throw it out of a window. Pick up the remains, and keep on using it. And trust me, a bit of sellotape will solve any problems caused by this method, whereas sueing me for its failure won't.

Okay, seriously.

If you want to get rid of the PC (sell it) and make sure that all data
is deleted, formatting alone won't do it. Xiahou just posted a tool in the
freeware/open source thread that is capable of deleting everything beyond recovery.
For such an operation you either need a working Operating System (XP f.e.) or a Live-CD or your original WinXP-CD to access the harddrive.
If you just want to reinstall Windows, than just boot your XP-CD and make a new install, thereby deleting/overwriting all content. Viruses, malware etc. will go away, too.
If you want to install a new OS, like linux, on the harddrive than the setup of that OS will be capable to clean the drive for you during install.

What's it gonna be?

Mithrandir,

If you just want to get rid of everything on you HD, R'as al Ghul has already explained the way. However if you want a new, fresh Windows, then setup of Windows will lead you to formatting of your drive when you choose to install Windows -not the recovery console- in setup's first option screen. And when it propmts for which file system to use, choose "format using FAT file system". Since your PC is old a bit that you may face compatibility issues if your system fails in the future. However NTFS is a more optimal file system in case you want to try it. I'm using it peacefully.

Good luck ~:)

Go into BIOS (I think it's the delete key as you're booting up)* change your boot start up to cd-rom. Save. Place XP disc in drive. Re-start. Then when you get the prompt 'boot from disk?' press Y.

It will give you an option to format and create Partition. When it re-starts sit back and relax. Do not press Y again when prompted.

Hope that helps.

*not all computers use the same key - but mine is delete key.