Cowman

Ok here's the deal
I wanted to format my computer
and somebody told me to put in my windows CD and do it from there

so being the dumbass I am, I installed windows from the CD, so I guess now i have 2 versions of windows on my computer, I dunno. Anyway, the point is, I can't get into windows because I have to "activate" it first..which I can't do because my computer mysteriously isn't connected to the internet anymore.

So now im trying to format my computer, only outside of windows(its XP home edition, by the way). I figured the best way to do this was to get a dos boot disk and try, but when I run dos from the boot disk, it doesn't recognize my C drive..thus I can't format it.

Any suggestions/solutions/whatever?

thanks for any help

(I'm writing this, of course, on another computer)

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MooseMan3000

Well... does it let you get into Windows at all? When I installed XP for the first time, it let me use it for 30 days before I activated it. From there, I could install the correct driver for my ethernet card and I was golden. I downloaded it on another computer and set it up.

If it can't do that... you can try booting from the XP CD. Go into BIOS and set your CD drive as the primary boot device, and have the XP CD in when you start. Then you can choose to start a new installation of XP, and when it asks you if you want to format the C drive, say "Yes" and choose the "NTFS" setting (not FAT).

Failing that... I can't see anything else. I dunno.

Lasereth

That's the only way I format. Screw using boot disks! Use that method, and then when asked to activate Windows, call Microsoft's 24/7 activation support to get your Windows running. The phone call is free and doesn't require Internet support.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Cowman

When I use the disk, it doesn't give me an option to format.

Also, as I told you im writing from another computer ( we have 3 in our home ). The computer with problems had a version of XP that came with it (I got the computer from Dell), and I lost that CD with the activation code on it. As a result, I decided to simply use the XP CD I have from this computer for my computer that has the problems. Im worried that if I do call and try to activate they'll remind me of that and won't help me.

So, for right now, i'd rather simply format my computer from outside of windows. If I can get to that point I'll call Dell and see if they can send me another CD(or I'll just look harder :P), but If I can't even get to that point im worried im going to have to take it into a computer shop or something..



ps. as you can tell im not very "tech savvy" =/

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You don't like my point of view..but im insane

Cowman

Ok wait, upon another attempt I was able to format the drive using the windows XP CD as a bootup as suggested by someone(sorry I forget your name).

It's going to take a while for it to format, so im just going to go to bed now and see if I can't find my other XP cd, or at least the code, in the morning.

thanks for the help guys

__________________
You don't like my point of view..but im insane