How do you totally erase a computer?

[TulsaGN]

I have an old laptop which I am going to use for DirestScan and am wanting to erase Windows and have the computer have nothing but DOS. Could someone please tell me how to do this....
Thanks....Brian from Tulsa

 

[striker_29]

Get a windows 98 boot disk and boot to it. At a: type-

Format c: /s

 

[1badTTA]

Are you sure? YES

 

[TulsaGN]

I don't have access to a Windows disk. Surely there is some other way to do this. I would rather delete Windows all together and only have DOS, but I guess I could settle for my laptop booting to DOS and skipping Windows. How would I go about doing that?

 

[hanly2]

If you have windows you can make a boot disk also if you are on the internet you can make a boot disk. Go to www.bootdisk.com and you can read up on all of it.

 

[wiked87gn]

you dont do format c:/s the first you have to do is fdisk.exe delete the partition,create new partition, set the partition active then run format c:/s and reload whatever you going to reload.

 

[striker_29]

Running fdisk is NOT required to wipe a hard disk clean, it only affects the partitions. I personally would run fdisk and repartition, but if your not comfortable with all of this, it is an unnecessary step. Format c: /s will wipe the drive clean and load command.com, io.sys, and msdos.sys making the drive bootable to dos.

 

[TulsaGN]

OK...I am pretty computer literate, but when it comes to doing something like what Striker said above, I'm a moron. Striker or somebody, could you go thru an easy step process to do what is listed from Striker above.

Thanks for all the replys, looking forward to getting this done!

Brian

 

[striker_29]

Ok your obviously at some kind of win machine now. I'll assume 95 or 98?? Get a blank floppy disk and insert it into the drive. Go to start, settings, control panel, add/remove programs. Click the startup disk tab at the top right. Click create start disk. Let me know when you have this done

 

[lp2]

Just hopping in to say striker_29 is dead on so far, so listen to him... (not going to add more because hes doing a good step by step job)

 

[TulsaGN]

Striker...sorry I didn't reply sooner, but I have created a start up disk now...what now?

 

[striker_29]

Ok hopefully your pc is set to boot to a: first. Put the floppy in the drive and boot the pc up to it. When it gets through booting you should be at a:

At a: type-

format c: /s


In exactly that format. It will ask you if your sure, press y and then just hit enter when it asks for a volume label. All data will be erased and it will load your dos files.

 

[TulsaGN]

Well crap...it's set to boot to Windows and have always wondered how to get it to boot to DOS. I've looked everywhere and tried the esc at bootup and looked there also. Please continue with my lesson....professor!
Brian

 

[striker_29]

Ok you need to get into the bios to check the boot order. When you first turn on the pc t he bios should say something like hit delete to enter setup. Or maybe f1 or f2, it just depends on the bios. When you see the message hit the key repeatedly until you get in. Then once again it depends on the bios, but look for maybe an advanced tab, and boot order. You want set set it to boot to floppy first.

 

[TulsaGN]

ok Professor Striker...I have done the boot disk and typed in, at the a:, format c: /s. It took a while, but it finished and erased everything, but now I am stuck at a question:
"Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)", what do I do here and what other questions may I encounter?

 

[hanly2]

press enter you don't need to label the volume.

 

[striker_29]

Exactly, you don't need a label. You should be good to go as soon as the format is complete

 

[TulsaGN]

Thanks Striker and to everyone that helped, I'm set up and good to go!

Brian

 

[striker_29]

Glad it worked out for you Brian.