Problem with a Clean Format

[Taffy]

Hi all,
I have a few problems
a.
I have a folder which I think i gave a password in TweakXP, or I protected it in windowsXp and reformated it. Now it says access denied.
b.
I have been trying to get rid of this folder for 3 weeks now.
So i thought i would do a clean re-install to the condition for when I got it. Loaded the Cd and 3 options came up..

Option 1. non-destructive system Recovery.
Option 2. Advance Options
i. System Recovery - Quick Format.
ii. System Recovery - No Format.
I tried Option 2, i
But there is no clean install remove everything.
Please can anyone help.

 

[Taffy]

Tried that but as I've already said there is no full format only quick.
After i tried that I still had the same programs and the folder there. My other problem is I have no floppy drive.

 

[allan]

Boot to the CD and begin a full installation. It will shortly recognize that XP is already installed and it will offere several options, one of which should be a format. Either way, it will let you drop out of the installation process and put you at a command prompt. At that point you can just type
format c: (or whatever the drive is).

 

[Taffy]

There are only the 3 options shown above, The laptop was supplied by PC world and I think they have put a startup menu on the cd.
Do you think I will need to make another bootable CD then reload windows back in?

 

[Taffy]

I know what you mean.. ie put cd in, turn off then switch on it loads from the cd. But the menu at the end of the load only shows the above 3 options.
I wish i stayed with 98 it was alot easier.
Also not having a floppy drive is a bl**dy nightmare.
Thanks for your help so far
Cheers

 

[jw50]

You have to go into your BIOS and change the boot sequence to boot from the CD drive first. Save the BIOS changes and exit, it will tell you to press any key to boot from the CD, if you dont press a key fairly quickly it will continue and boot from the hard drive, if it boots from the hard drive it will not allow you to format the partition that XP is on, when it boots to the CD it will load the files that XP needs to do the install and will give you the option of formatting the hard drive before installing XP. After you have finished installing XP make sure you go back into the BIOS and reset the boot sequence back to the default.

 

[dijital]

okay back to the original problem of the undeletable protected folder.

1. are you using admin rights to the computer?
2. what kind of folder is this? a program files folder? system folder? garbage stuff folder?

if 2. is the case, try booting into ms-dos using a ntfs boot drive mounter. from there, you should be able to delete the folder just fine, since you wont be in win xp.

the ntfs drive mounter i'd suggest is ntfspro, which can be found at www.winternals.com

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by Taffy
Tried that but as I've already said there is no full format only quick.
After i tried that I still had the same programs and the folder there. My other problem is I have no floppy drive.

Then it's not a quick format. That would wipe the drive for sure.

 

[Taffy]

Thanks for all your help.
Finally did it.
Went into safe mode logged on as Amin,
went to explorer then folder settings, Security settings and changed them there. Then deleted them.
Many thanks for your help.
Cheers

 

[bmxjt]

Try deleting the partitionand then recreating the partition with the boot disk. This would be prior to formatting.