Reformatting OUCHHHHHHH

[echocola]

Hello everyone, i would really like some help as I am officially worried and don't know what to do. My computer got stuck on the loading screen, BTW i have Win98 266mhz and 128 RAM. What i wanted to do was a customary reformat and not even bother because i have nothing of importance on the computer BUT when i go to DOS to type in ( format c: ) it tells me "Bad command or file name" I did this while i was in c: and while i was in a: and it didn't help me at all. Also right above the the prompt are some strange symbols kind of like when you open a program with notepad and you get all these funky characters so im thinking maybe i got a virus since it was about a week ago i uninstalled my antivirus. Anyway thanks allot in advance for any guidance you may provide as i am lost.

[Waldo2k2]

what kind of hard drive do you have? If it's a maxtor, that's great cause i have free software from them that allows you to format maxtor hard drives from a boot disk. If not, then use windows boot disk (if you don't have one try bootdisk.com i think it is and download an image). Boot from either disk and format then. If windows still runs, just format c: from there (explorer, right click c: drive, format...could be properties etc etc, format i don't remember). Anyway just get back to us on whether it's a maxtor or not.

[echocola]

I think it is a maxtor actually!!!! its the one with the red case right??!?!? Well let me know about the software because i was thinking about using autoclave to do it, but anyway thanks for replying!

[Waldo2k2]

give me about a half hour, i have to make an image, and give you the url to a program that will make an disk from an image

[echocola]

dude thank you so much you're the best man, i really appreciate it

[mart_man00]

did you trying switching to "C:\windows\command" and then doing format? boot floppy?

[echocola]

I used autoclave and just popped in the floppy and turned my harddrive into a bunch of zeros

[echocola]

thanks for your help though, much appreciated

[tyler4588]

Umm...Did you reboot to DOS or did you just do this from a DOS command prompt? I'm pretty sure that Windows 98 doesn't allow you to format itself. Try booting from a floppy disk.

[iain]

you cant format windows from windows - thats like asking a tiger to eat its own tail. It will only get a few bytes in, then stop and you'll only have part of a tiger...you get the idea.

iains guide to succcessful refrmatting
_____________________________

i accept responsibility for nothing, ever.

1) createa boot disk (from control panel-add/remove programs-startupdisk)

2)set floppy to first boot device and boot from the disk

3)after the drivers have loaded, type
cd a:
[enter]
format c:

4)
thats it

then boot from your windows cdrom ( or use the boot disk to load cdrom drivers and use the etup function on the cdrom)

Make sure you have all your drivers before you wipe your achine, if nmot download them from the net first!

[Waldo2k2]

sorry about not getting that prog to you, there was a thunderstorm like 2 minutes after i posted that so i had to unplug. Last night was a late night at work so you get the point, i haven't booted up my computer since the storm. Anywho, glad to see you got it to work.

[echocola]

well as far as the reformatting goes, autoclave is a boot disk and i'ts incredibly easy to use and supposedly can sanitize your drive so that even the NSA can't extract information from i :P

[civix]

The only way that youre gonna prevent the NSA from extracting information from your HDD is to smash it with a sledgehammer and fertilize your grass with it. I don't care what autoclave says.