format HD

[bobarotti]

My daughter brought me home her old laptop. It is a Compaq Presario 700 with Windows XP, a mobile AMD Duron processor at 697mhz and 250 of RAM. Not really enough for Windows XP, I know, but it has always been a great little computer until now. She has a multitude of superfluous programs installed and the thing hardly runs anymore. I have tried to uninstall as many as possible but some refuse to do so. I would just reinstall XP but there is no Windows disk. I attempted to install Xandros Linux (GASP!) but was unable to do so despite multiple different attempts. I thought that maybe it would be best to just format the hard drive and start fresh. The computer will not do so. I have tried in Normal mode and Safe mode, by going into My Computer, right clicking on C drive and clicking on format. I get the following error message..."Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again." No applications show up in task manager as running and nothing unusual is in Processes either. Help!

Ps. I have also attempted this in DOS without success.

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Originally Posted by bobarotti

.......... I have tried in Normal mode and Safe mode, by going into My Computer, right clicking on C drive and clicking on format. I get the following error message..."Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again." .........

You can not format the drive windows is installed on from within windows as windows is the programme running.

Presarios should have a "Restore Disk", brand name pc's have a load of crap put on them by the manufacturers as well as your all important m/board drivers etc. if you have no restore disk you are going to have to ensure you have all the required drivers e.g. lan, sound, chipset etc, from the Compaq site before you attempt to format.

To format once you have all the required drivers, make your cd rom first boot device in the bios, pop the xp disk in the rom drive, reboot, then follow the prompts. Pay close attention to the screen during boot for a prompt "Hit any key to boot from CD" it only flashes for a short time, if you miss it it will boot to the os and you will have to reboot again.

WARNING: All data will be lost from the hdd so back up all important data before formatting.

[bobarotti]

I do not have a restore disk. God only knows where my daughter put it. Could you be more specific as to what drivers I need to download? Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by ANZAC_ELITE

You can not format the drive windows is installed on from within windows as windows is the programme running.

Presarios should have a "Restore Disk", brand name pc's have a load of crap put on them by the manufacturers as well as your all important m/board drivers etc. if you have no restore disk you are going to have to ensure you have all the required drivers e.g. lan, sound, chipset etc, from the Compaq site before you attempt to format.

To format once you have all the required drivers, make your cd rom first boot device in the bios, pop the xp disk in the rom drive, reboot, then follow the prompts. Pay close attention to the screen during boot for a prompt "Hit any key to boot from CD" it only flashes for a short time, if you miss it it will boot to the os and you will have to reboot again.

WARNING: All data will be lost from the hdd so back up all important data before formatting.

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by bobarotti

I do not have a restore disk. God only knows where my daughter put it. Could you be more specific as to what drivers I need to download? Thanks for the info.

Here is the site, as you don't say which country the comp was made for, you will have choose the country ( the letters after 700 denote country of origine ) then just go to driver downloads, all the drivers are there choose your Os as XP http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Looku...x=0&submit.y=0

Hope this helps