Re: Can't format

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I have had many Dells and I don't recognize the "also enabled the Installing
OS" option you speak of--perhaps this is the problem. With the CDRom as the
first boot device, and booting with the Operating System CD in the drive,
you should get a prompt to hit any key to boot from the CD. This leads to
screens where you press Enter, F-8 and Esc. At this last screen you can
delete and/or partition. I believe Format comes on the next screen;
however, I did not want to tempt fate and see what the next screen was :-)

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP 1997 - 2008


"Jorge E. Jaramillo" <king1george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23LFQ4VXyIHA.6096@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a Dell computer that I bought about 3 years ago. With time it became
obsolete for the use I wanted to give it and I bought a brand new one but I
consider that my old machine is a good equipment and that my nephews could
still use it and I wanted to give it to them but without the burden of so
many old programs that make its start up to take too long.

So I thought of formating it and reinstalling the whole XP but I haven't
been able to do it. I changed the boot sequence to start with the CD and I
also enabled the Installing OS (or something like that) option but still
when i turn on the computer with the cd labeled as "Operating System" and
having the Dell logos and stuff, it starts normally and loads the whole
Win XP without giving me the option to format.

I also tried to format form Windows with the Win Explorer pointing at D:
and rightclicking on C and choosing Format, but after it tells me that
this action will erase all data and I agree, another message telling me
that it can not be formatted for the drive is being used.

Can anyone tell me how do i proceed to format this drive? With Windows 98
it used to be so easy with those startup disks but this computer doesn't
even have a 3.5 drive.

Thanks



.

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