How do i reformat my hardrive without the windows xd disks? please be specific.?

Question

simply put:my computer is completely broke and useless, so i have to reformat it. I don't have the windows xp disk(i lost it), so is there a way to reformat without one? please and thank you

Answer 1

absolutely not!

Can you drive a car with out an engine or fuel?

Answer 2

impossible

if you want emial me at

[e-mail]

and i can try to find you disks

Answer 3

In order to format your hard drive without the XP disk you need to be able to boot the computer into DOS prompt using either a Bootable floppy or a bootable Cd-rom. There are online utility sites that provide the ISO for the creation of a bootable CD.

Information on ISO -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_image

Try this site to see if you can get an ISO to create a bootable CD

http://www.bootdisk.com/

With a bootable CD you would boot into the d drive as long as you set your computer's BIOS to boot from the CD before it boots the hard drive (You would need to leave the bootable CD in the drive and restart  the computer). Your computer will boot into the drive and you will see the drive letter d:\ on the screen,

to format the drive C you type

Format C:     (and then press enter key)

a message will appear on screen as follows -

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK

DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed With Format (Y/N)?

you type y and press enter....this will erase the whole drive

Of course you'll still need an Operating System (OS) to be installed in order for your computer to be useful...if you can't get another windows CD you could use another computer to download a Linux OS...there are many but my favorite is Ubuntu  http://www.ubuntu.com/

There you can find an ISO for their free operating system which you can use to create a Ubuntu installation CD. The website has all the info you need to do this. At least this way you can regain the ability to use your computer without spending anything and you'll have time to sort out what you want to do about getting another copy of windows.

Just occurred to me that you might only need the Ubuntu installation CD. It should actually give you the option to wipe the drive during setup, just as windows XP does.

Answer 4

Simple enough to reformat but without the system install disc, you will not be able to do anything (like reload the OS).

Answer 5

ilaptops~

http://ruggedlaptop.com/