Formatting a C drive.

[ef37a]

Can someone please tell me how to do it?

I am two weeks in trying to get a W7 PC working. I now have a legal install but cannot get on the internet with it or install much in the way of drivers.
I want to make a clean start but am not allowed to format the drive with the OS on it.

Ultimately going to be W10...I hope!

Dave.

[The Elf]

When I've installed Windows from scratch IIRC it has given me options to rebuild the drive and partitions.

[tea for two]

Wind 7 Disk Management.
https://www.resize-c.com/howto/windows- ... ement.html

[ef37a]

Thanks chaps. I seem to recall that Disc Management thing I tried and got stuck by "You must be logged on as administrator..." and I can't seem to do that either.

That disk resizer looks promising but the PC will not install certain things. Anything running from an installer is obviously crook since it won't go to the site and download.

Anyhooos...going to a B day lunch, mine, in half so will give all this a bash this evening.

Thanks again.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

"You must be logged on as administrator..." and I can't seem to do that either.

That's most likely the problem - you need the administrator password for quite a few things in Windows if you like to tinker.

[illegal colors]

To format a system drive is very easy if you boot from any other drive: floppy, CD/DVD, USB, network, etc. with any disc management software or operating system: FreeDOS, Linux, Windows just about anything will do.

[ef37a]

To format a system drive is very easy if you boot from any other drive: floppy, CD/DVD, USB, network, etc. with any disc management software or operating system: FreeDOS, Linux, Windows just about anything will do.

Can I press you for a little more detail? The PC will boot from the optical drive.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

To format a system drive is very easy if you boot from any other drive: floppy, CD/DVD, USB, network, etc. with any disc management software or operating system: FreeDOS, Linux, Windows just about anything will do.

Can I press you for a little more detail? The PC will boot from the optical drive.

Dave.

If you have a Windows CD or DVD then just put that in the optical drive and boot from it. In days gone by I used to use the Ultimate Boot CD which included all kinds of useful utilities

www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I've removed the clickable link as I'm not sure how legitimate that link is - JP

though I've not needed it for a while.

[ef37a]

To format a system drive is very easy if you boot from any other drive: floppy, CD/DVD, USB, network, etc. with any disc management software or operating system: FreeDOS, Linux, Windows just about anything will do.

Can I press you for a little more detail? The PC will boot from the optical drive.

Dave.

If you have a Windows CD or DVD then just put that in the optical drive and boot from it. In days gone by I used to use the Ultimate Boot CD which included all kinds of useful utilities

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

though I've not needed it for a while.

Thank you James. I have the original W764 DVD and a valid product code but I don't recall seeing a "Format" option when I installed from it? I am sure in the distant past there was a DOS command (I can get to 'cmd') that forced a format but I cannot find it.

Slightly miffed at the term "tinker" matey! The PC is useless to me as it is but if I can get W10 on it will be about the fastest box I have. It presently has only 6G of ram and I want to max that out at some point but I cannot find out the MOBO's ram limit as I can't 'king install any test software!

Dave.

[James Perrett]

Slightly miffed at the term "tinker" matey!

In Microsoft's world you use what you've been given - or buy it from the app store. So I used the word from their point of view - doing anything apart from using ready installed apps is "tinkering".

The Ultimate Boot CD should be able to do all that you want to do without re-installing Windows.

[ef37a]

Slightly miffed at the term "tinker" matey!

In Microsoft's world you use what you've been given - or buy it from the app store. So I used the word from their point of view - doing anything apart from using ready installed apps is "tinkering".

The Ultimate Boot CD should be able to do all that you want to do without re-installing Windows.

Sounds ideal James. One problem, I have spent the last 15 minutes trying to down load it. I either land in a download of Opera, Zipfix or a PDF reader! Even when I seem to have downloaded it I cannot find it. Does not go to "Downloads" nor can be found on my C drive. (this is on my Lenovo W10 laptop).

Dave.

[James Perrett]

You need to be very careful on their website as it looks like most of the things that say "Download" are actually Google ads. I thought I'd found a source for an old version but it seems to contain a virus - hmm - maybe not such a good recommendation. I'll edit my post above and see if I still have an old version I can send you...

[ef37a]

You need to be very careful on their website as it looks like most of the things that say "Download" are actually Google ads. I thought I'd found a source for an old version but it seems to contain a virus - hmm - maybe not such a good recommendation. I'll edit my post above and see if I still have an old version I can send you...

Thank you James...glad it wasn't me being thick! Please don't put yourself to any trouble, I might give up on it soon or take it to a very good computer shop near me.

Dave.

[tea for two]

or take it to a very good computer shop near me.

Or .... swapping ooot existing hard drive bunging in a fresh hard drive. Installing wind7 on fresh hard drive.

[ef37a]

or take it to a very good computer shop near me.

Or .... swapping ooot existing hard drive bunging in a fresh hard drive. Installing wind7 on fresh hard drive.

..Way Tea for sure. W10 really needs an SSD and I can get a 1TB for a bout a nifty. Been hitting the plastic a bit hard lately though ('king household ***t, nothing 'nice'!) but maybe cheaper than the shop who might say it is the only good solution anyway?

Dave.

[ef37a]

I am going to devote most of tomorrow to it and if by dinnertime no go then I shall order an SSD.

I see I can get a 500G Crucial or Kingston internal SSD for about £29, is there any advantage in paying twice as much for the same capacity?
Bear in mind that this is an old Asus MOBO and a 3G AMD processor. I would like to save the cash to put towards more memory.

Dave.

[tea for two]

or take it to a very good computer shop near me.

Or .... swapping ooot existing hard drive bunging in a fresh hard drive. Installing wind7 on fresh hard drive.

..Way Tea for sure. W10 really needs an SSD and I can get a 1TB for a bout a nifty. Been hitting the plastic a bit hard lately though ('king household ***t, nothing 'nice'!) but maybe cheaper than the shop who might say it is the only good solution anyway?

Dave.

Same. Moneys too tight to mention. Lol. Nowadays I look for retailers that accept payments in no interest 3 instalments by paypal purchases over 30squid.

I am going to devote most of tomorrow to it and if by dinnertime no go then I shall order an SSD.

I see I can get a 500G Crucial or Kingston internal SSD for about £29, is there any advantage in paying twice as much for the same capacity?
Bear in mind that this is an old Asus MOBO and a 3G AMD processor. I would like to save the cash to put towards more memory.

Dave.

Sata3 SSD depending on the type of NAND : for server level there is an advantage, yet for comsumer use paying 2x for same 500GB capacity I haven't done so.
EBuyer are having a sale Kingston A400 960GB 2.5 inch internal SSD 40squid+2postage they do paypal in no interest 3 instalments.

My wind11 laptop has just bog standard consumer grade 256GB SSD, same bog standard consumer grade for my external SSDs. I've had Crucial, Kingston, Pny, Samsung, SanDisk, Verbatim, WesternDigital, consumer grade SSD.

Your computer psu should have sata power cable else just requires purrchasing molex to sata power cable. Also requires a motherboard to ssd sata cable.

[illegal colors]

Thank you James. I have the original W764 DVD and a valid product code but I don't recall seeing a "Format" option when I installed from it? I am sure in the distant past there was a DOS command (I can get to 'cmd') that forced a format but I cannot find it.

Dave.

Boot.

Select your keyboard language.

In Windows 7, choose the first option you see and press Next.

Select Command Prompt.

[ef37a]

Thank you James. I have the original W764 DVD and a valid product code but I don't recall seeing a "Format" option when I installed from it? I am sure in the distant past there was a DOS command (I can get to 'cmd') that forced a format but I cannot find it.

Dave.

Boot.

Select your keyboard language.

In Windows 7, choose the first option you see and press Next.

Select Command Prompt.

Thank you, as I say, I can get to the Command Prompt but then I don't know the correct form to type. Not as simple as "Format C" I bet?

Dave.

[BWC]

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo ... s/diskpart

[illegal colors]

Not as simple as "Format C" I bet?

Dave.

format c:

or

format c: /fs:NTFS

or

help format

for more options.

[ef37a]

James...I am sorted, found a UBDisk.
Ran it, did not understand it but as I say, nothing to lose and it seemed to install a Linux program. That had a Partition tool and in that was a format option to NTFS.

Still no joy because somehow the C partition is now "MBR" and Windows needs it to be "GPT" but I do not see any way to reverse whatever has happened.

I have a 500G SSD coming Thursday.

Thanks all, I might "Be Bek" !!

Dave.

[Hugh Robjohns]

MBR — master boot record — is where the disc description lives (how many volumes, drive letters, directories etc). But it's an old concept now and limited to 32 bit systems.

Modern 64 bit systems use GPT — GUID Partition Table. Windows can convert the former to the latter when necessary.

[ef37a]

MBR — master boot record — is where the disc description lives (how many volumes, drive letters, directories etc). But it's an old concept now and limited to 32 bit systems.

Modern 64 bit systems use GPT — GUID Partition Table. Windows can convert the former to the latter when necessary.

Haha! Makes sense now you say it Hugh! However the PC was always 64 bits (6G ram) and so is the W7 DVD. I don't understand how the drive got converted, seems perverse that it has taken me hours (but then yes, I AM PC thick!) to find a way to format the drive but somehow the partition table was altered in a blink without me knowing a thing about it! Just about everything I have tried to do has been prefaced with a stern "do you really want to do this" or similar but I am allowed somehow to wreck(?) my hard drive with no warning?

Maybe if I get W7 sorted on the new SSD I shall be able to fix the 1TB old drive for storage?

Dave.

[illegal colors]

Dave,
in your case there is no need to fix anything. You can just mess things up even more. Delete what you can, partitions, boot records, partition tables, etc.
If you make good mess, Windows installation routine will repartition and reformat the hard drive for you.