format windows xp hard drive

how do i format my hard drive?

Im using windows xp home and it is horrible

I want to go back to win 2000 but now that ive installed xp I cant go back. Xp diables the setup features on my win 2000 disk.

How do I do this Im going nucking futs!!!!!

First of all Back up all important data to removable media

Next make your self a boot disc [skip this if ur win 2000 cd is bootable and your bios supports CD booting]

Restart your computer

Think about what you are doing

Repeat last step and make sure you got all your data

*now boot from your floppy and if you have a NTFS partition you will have to remove the partition with fdisk make it again and then format it to NTFS during the install

*If you got a bootable windows 2000 cd then boot off on it and it should give you an option to format the drive and then install
[sorry i cant remember]

Install Win 2k and then install all the software you had b4

did you upgrade from 2k?

i think there is an option in the Add and Remove Programs control panel applet to remove windows XP but it would prolly leave a lot of garbage

if you need help you might be able to catch me on MSN

[email protected]

Why don't you boot from the cd (you don't need floppy bootdisk). don't choose repair but go with new installation . It will do the format part ...etc . they are all easy to follow .

Ive tried booting from the cd? Tell me the process to do this, maybe Im doing incorrectly?


Another thing is my comp doesn't have a floppy drive cd only so how do I make boot disks?

Im nort sure if my disk is bootable its from msdn though with three windows versions on it

And what and how are boot disks supposed to work?

Please help I must be an idiot or something I just cant figure this thing out!

Thanks for the replies though, keep em comin:D

it depends on ur bios but here are sum ideas

if your computer asks you to press a key to select a boot device or sumtin like that do it and select your CD rom drive

What is a boot disk?
a boot disk is a 3.5 inch disk that allows the computer to boot
from it and run a dos app
this really doesnt apply if you dont have a floppy

if you want me to explain it in detail i would need to know what type of motherboard you got

[you can reach me on msn for another 2 hours]

Go into your BIOS Setup (at the POST it should tell you which key to press, it's often Delete), and look for a section called "Advanced BIOS Features" or something similar. As you don't have a floppy drive, set the "First boot device" to CDROM, and "Second boot device" to HDD0. Save the settings & exit. Then you should be able to boot from the CD.

make sure when you get into the win2k setup from the cd.. you delete the partition that exists (as they said after you back up anything you want to save)...

delete the partition and then format

partition magic is a good program for this kind of stuff :)