cleaning and reformating hard drive

[Guest_imported]

I hava a custum built computer with a 20 gig partitioned hard drive. I wish to clean my C drive ,running ME. I want to re format after incorectly entering a wrong letter in registration process. Now my writer wont write didly : any help please#

 

[conceptumator]

I'm not sure what you are saying started the problem, but it sounds like you need to fdisk your drive and start clean. If you haven't used fdisk, reply back to this thread and I will try to step you through it. It's really pretty easy and will completely wipe out everything on your drive.

 

[Guest_imported]

I am running Microsoft Windows Millenium Edition (ME.) on my P.C., I am currrently having numerous problems with it, and I believe this to be a problem with ME and some of the files I downloaded off the net. How do I reformat my hard drive?
So far I have been told you restart you computer and hit delete so you are in the setup, and then change your BIOS so that your P.C. reads the CD ROM Drive before the Hard Drive, this meaning that once you clear your hard drive, it can reinstall Microsoft Windows, which ever version you are running. You then go to DOS and give it the command to reformat the hard drive. (C:/format. - I think.)
Is that correct?
The problem that I am having is that when I start up my computer, I do not recieve the option to 'hit' delete and edit the setup to change the BIOS. I have also found that hitting delete does nothing, as can be expected. I have not been able to find any other way to change the BIOS. Is there one? Or is there a fdifferent way to reformat a hard drive, and what I am doing is wrong?
Thanks.

 

[edfair]

Should be a splash screen telling you how to get to setup. Sometimes delete, sometimes F1, sometimes f2, sometimes f10, all depending on who made it and what they set up.
You should be able to do the reload by doing a complete reinstall from the CD if your bios allows the machine to boot from the CD. Otherwise you would need a boot disk with Cd support and fdisk, format,and sys as installed programs. You can get bootable floppies from several sources on the web. Look for boot disk. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[conceptumator]

Like edfair says, look for the splash screen as every different manufacturer seems to be doing something different these days. If you don't see the splash screen, look in the manual. If that doesn't work, let me know what kind of computer you have and I will dig through my "archives" and try to help you out.