Format Question

[Jewelzz]

I have to format my PC and have my bootdisks ready to go BUT I don't have a floppy on this new PC, what now?

 

[Grandmaster]

The XP CD is supposed to boot by itself. You shouldn't need floppy boot disks.

Edit:

http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html

Scroll down to "Formatting and Installing from the Windows XP CD", and follow the steps 🙂

 

[gonaads]

If you have SATA HDD you will need a Floppy Drive for the SATA Drivers. The XP CD does not recognize an SATA HDD.

 

[Jewelzz]

I know how to format but I want the entire drive wiped clean before the install and since I don't have a floppy my boot disks are useless

It's not SATA to my knowledge

 

[madmatt]

SATA hard drives don't require drivers. It is the controller that requires the drivers which may not be present.

Do not do a quick reformat and you will be all set as far as the drive being wiped clean. If you really want to wipe is completely clean then you would need to write 1's and 0's using a utility from your hard drive manufacturer (e.g. WD Data Lifeguard Tools).

 

[gonaads]

SATA hard drives don't require drivers. It is the controller that requires the drivers which may not be present.

Yeah, that. :s

 

[American Zombie]

Most newer motherboards do not require you to install drivers during XP setup.

 

[Electronic Punk]

You should be able to wipe partitions etc. to with any bootable Windows install disk these days, shouldn't be any need to dust off the old 3.5

SATA drivers, wow - I am so happy Vista sees it by default 🙂

 

[Psyborg]

you could always pick up a usb floppy drive cheap...