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bloody computers-formating help
kombi_kid - September 28th, 2003 at 09:43 PM

hey
i have asked this before but cant find it.
i need to format my comp and always forget the steps involded in doing it so if someone can give them to me i will be able to do it!!!
cheers
rhys:tree

[Edited on 28-9-2003 by kombi_kid]

cray - September 28th, 2003 at 09:59 PM

uhh? are you sure you mean reboot?

if so:

click Start
click Shut Down
click Restart
click OK
play the waiting game

kombi_kid - September 28th, 2003 at 10:07 PM

reboot the whole hard drive - partion the hard drive clean the bloody system out from all the junk comsumed!!!
cheers
rhys

cray - September 28th, 2003 at 10:17 PM

ok, so you mean formatting/reinstalling everything

just a tip, that's not called rebooting :)

jenz58 - September 28th, 2003 at 10:32 PM

Rhys what junk do you need to get rid of??

Go to 'add remove programs' to get rid of programs not used

In 'Accessories' 'System Tools' do a 'Disk clean up'

Defrag

Or have you done all that?

jenz58 - September 28th, 2003 at 10:35 PM

Wah and my email's not working now after updating XP

Think it changed all my server settings

Have been trying to fix it but think I'll have to ring Optus to get the settings again:cussing

And I keep getting asked for a password even though I've set it to just log me in:cussing

Bloody puters


Hmmmm, think I may change my signature if the next sprinkle of pixie dust fails:(

[Edited on 28-9-2003 by jenz58]

jenz58 - September 28th, 2003 at 11:05 PM

Well I just rang Optus and the problem is their end:)

Can access internet but not email

and it makes the password window pop up all the time

So glad it's not here

Rhys how's it going your end?

vanderaj - September 28th, 2003 at 11:21 PM

If it's NT/2000/XP you're reformatting with, you must boot from the original CD, or if your BIOS is extremely old or feeble and can't boot from the CD, you'll need to make up a set of three / four boot floppies (\boot\i386\makeboot.bat).

If you don't have the original CD but have one of those loathsome anti-consumer "Recovery" CDs or even worse, a Restore partition (IBM are notorious for this), you'll need to use those.

Put the CD in, boot it, and when it comes time to install, one of the choices is to repartition. Use this to delete your current C (or whatever) drives, and then recreate them as NTFS volumes. It will reformat it (well, read every sector and then write out a blank directory structure), and install files afresh.

Make sure you apply SP1 and all the outstanding hotfixes from Windows Update.

Andrew

helbus - September 29th, 2003 at 12:28 AM

I just get another friend who is real techy at this stuff to help me!

Then I help him with his car. No GST see! :D