How to Format Win XP in HP Laptops

The Windows XP operating system comes with a bootable CD, which makes it simple to format your HP laptop. A bootable CD is used when you want to remove all information from the hard drive. The Windows XP CD boots directly to the startup installation process, but you can also use it to run the format utility, which erases all information from the drive. The CD contains the utility, and you follow the instructions for the format utility after you back up your files. 

 

Things You'll Need

• Windows XP installation CD

Instructions

1. • 1
     Insert the CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive. Turn your computer off, wait five seconds and power on the machine. The CD boots directly to a blue screen. Press the "Esc" key on your keyboard to escape the installation and return to DOS.
     
     
   • 2
     Type "format c: /s" in the command prompt and press "Enter." The "/s" switch copies the system files to the drive, so you can properly boot to an operating system instead of receiving errors from the computer.
     
     
   • 3
     Press the "Y" key on your keyboard to confirm that you want to delete the files on the hard drive. The time it takes to format a hard drive depends on the amount of storage space on the device.
     
     
   • 4
     Remove the Windows XP CD and reboot the machine. You can now reinstall a new operating system or use the DOS command prompt.
     

HOW TO FORMAT A TOSHIBA LAPTOP IN XP

You can format a partition or hard drive on your Toshiba laptop using the Windows XP installation CD or recovery disk included with the machine. Formatting another drive or partition deletes all of the data on that part of your Toshiba laptop.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Back up all files, folders, important documents and media files you want to preserve from the hard drive or partition that you are formatting.
     
     
   • 2
     Restart your Toshiba laptop and insert the Windows XP installation disk or recovery CD -- whichever came with your laptop.
     
     
   • 3
     Hit a key when you see "Hit any key to boot from CD."
     
     
   • 4
     Press enter to begin the Windows installer and the F8 key to accept the licensing agreement. Press the ESC key if the installation prompts you to repair your current Windows XP installation.
     
     
   • 5
     Select the partition you want to format. Hit "D" to delete the data on the current partition and "L" to confirm the deletion. Hit "C" to create a new partition.
     
     
   • 6
     Hit enter if you want the partition to take up all available space, otherwise type in the partition size and hit enter. Select the new partition and hit enter. Choose "Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)." The partition is now completely formatted.
     

HOW TO FORMAT A LAPTOP WITHOUT A CD

Formatting a hard disk drive (HDD) on your laptop will erase any files, programs and operating systems that the drive contains. Doing so will leave this hard drive completely blank and the files cannot be restored. The hard drive that contains the version of Windows that your laptop is running cannot be formatted without a Windows CD. Any other hard drive on your laptop can be formatted without a CD.

 

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Hard drive
• Windows

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Instructions

1. • 1
     Start your laptop and click the Windows "Start" button on your desktop. Click on the "Control Panel" button on the right side of the menu that pops up.
     
     
     
   • 2
     Click on "System and Maintenance" in the "Control Panel" window that opens. Continue to click on the icon labeled "Administrative Tools" from the list of icons in "System and Maintenance."
     
     Open the "Computer Management" window by double-clicking it in the "Administrative Tools" window. You may be asked to enter your Windows password to continue. If so, enter your password to continue.
     
     
   • 4
     Click on the "Storage" link and click "Disk Management" in the new window to open a list of storage devices connected to your laptop. Locate the hard drive that you wish to reformat and right-click on it.
     
     
   • 5
     Click "Format" in the gray pop-up menu that appears and click "OK" in the window that opens. Click "OK" in the warning box that appears to begin formatting the HDD on the laptop. Windows will format the drive automatically. Restart your computer once the process has finished to complete the format.
     

HOW TO FORMAT A LAPTOP HARD DRIVE ( 1)

There are several reasons that a laptop's hard drive may need to be formatted. Heavy use and abuse of Windows, installing and removing large numbers of programs and virus infestation can all cripple Windows to the point that a re-installation of the operating system is needed. It's possible, too, that you have purchased a new hard drive to replace a failed drive or to give higher storage capacity, and need to format that drive to prepare it for Windows installation. Using a Windows installation disk or software provided by the hard drive manufacturer, makes it easy to format. Read on to learn how to format a laptop hard drive.

 Things You'll Need

• Windows installation media (and product key)
• Manufacturer software

Instructions

1. • 1
     Ensure that the hard disk is installed properly in the laptop. The drive cannot be formatted before it is installed, or if it's not installed correctly.
     
   • 2
     Gather the required software. The type of media will depend on the hardware in your laptop. Older computers without a CD-ROM drive, will require the use of the operating system floppy disks. Laptops that can run Windows XP require the installation CD and product key. Older versions of Windows also have disk-formatting capability in the installation process, and the installation media is either a CD or floppy disk.
     
   • 3
     Place the installation disk or manufacturer software in the drive and then boot the computer. Early in the installation process, the Windows installer has a step that will detect any installed hard disks and allow for them to be formatted. The software from the disk manufacturer will also detect the hard disk and give you the option to format the drive.
     
   • 4
     Determine which file system is to be used. Windows XP will either work on a NTFS file system or an older VFAT file system. Choose the desired file system when prompted.
     
   • 5
     Decide whether the whole disk should be formatted or if the disk will be partitioned and each partition to be formatted separately. The Windows installer includes a menu-driven utility that will create hard disk partitions before formatting. If the hard disk is being formatted to replace an existing Windows installation, delete the existing partitions and re-create them.
     
   • 6 
     Format the hard disk with the Windows installer when prompted. The Windows installer will let you know when it is time to format the disk and ask for confirmation.

Tips & Warnings

• The manufacturer software that comes with a laptop hard drive will sometimes include disk-formatting capabilities, but will not install Windows.

How to format a computer and reset your computer back to the default settings:

***********WARNING************

(also known as reformatting, wiping or restoring your computer to factory defaults) The following steps will delete all of the information off of your computer’s hard drive.  Please make sure that you have backed up all your data, programs, address book, data, calendars, etc, etc.  It will ALL be gone after these formatting steps

***********WARNING************

What is the benefit to formatting my computer?  How to format the computer’s hard drive:

These steps are for formatting your primary drive (normally C:\) in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7 and to reinstall the operating system.

The easiest way to format your computer is by locating your operating system CD.  Look for a CD or DVD that specifically says “Operating System” or “System Restore”.    Insert the installation disc into your CD or DVD drive. 

Restart your computer. 

When your computer is restarting, you will be prompted to “Press any key to boot from CD”.  Simply press any button on your keyboard when you see this message.  If you do not see this message when you restart your computer, you may need to reset your boot disk sequence. *

*To reset the boot sequence, go into BIOS mode.  To do this, restart your computer and while restarting press the F1, F2, F10, or maybe the delete key (your computer screen will say “To enter setup press xxx”.  You only have a few seconds to press the correct  key, so if you miss it you will need to restart your computer and try again.  Once you have successfully entered the BIOS mode, look for your boot sequence options.  Set the CD ROM drive to be the 1^st in the boot sequence.  Save your changes and exit.

The CD will load a blue screen, then after a few minutes will ask you to press Enter to set up Windows.

You will then be prompted to select where to install Windows.  There will be a box on the lower half of your screen that will either show “Unpartitioned space xxxMB” or will have “Partitioned space xxxMB”.  Highlight which partition you wish to format (typically it will be the unpartitioned space or the space with the largest partition by most megabytes).  Hit Enter after selecting the space to partition.

The next step is to choose which file system to format the drive with.  The NTFS option will be the fastest option.  For most formatting purposes, choose the option that ends in “Quick”.  Press Enter when done.

The computer will then begin the formatting process.  This process may take a while depending on the size of the hard drive you are formatting and the speed of hard drive.

As soon as the drive has been formatted, the operating system files will be copied to the hard drive and the operating system will start installing.