Various Topics on Windows XP

..cha..

Hi. OK, well, I have a Dell XPS2 that I'm returning to Dell, so I wanted to
reformat the hard drive to get rid of all my p***words and other info. I
couldn't figure out how to reboot in ms-dos in order to do that, though. (I
found out later that I could've made an ms-dos boot disk.) So, I ended up
going into the configuration utility during startup, at which point I
selected the option to "delete RAID drives" or something like that, thinking
that it would reformat the drive.

I was expecting some sort of delay as the hard drive deleted its contents
and such, but that didn't happen. Rather, the deletion process was fairly
instantaneous. Consequently, I have no idea whether the data in the hard
drive was actually destroyed or not. I can't access the C: drive, either by
rebooting or from the A: drive, and the Windows setup disk does not detect
any hard drive. However, the BIOS says it's there. I've tried resetting the
hard drive to non-RAID and to another RAID drive, but it still can't be
found.

Any idea what to do here? Because I'm returning the system, I don't really
care too much about getting it to work again. I primarily just want to
reformat the drive to detroy all the data. Suggestions?

Thanks for any help,
Mike

.... .... ..-M..

If the drive was formatted NTFS, then a DOS boot disk won't see it. If you have a fully installable copy of XP, not a recovery CD, you can boot from the CD and run setup. As part of setup, you'll be offered the opportunity to format the drive.

From a DOS Boot disk, run FDISK and remove the Non-DOS partition.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
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"Michael" <trash_address@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:O1kFp7x8DHA.3880@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi. OK, well, I have a Dell XPS2 that I'm returning to Dell, so I wanted to
> reformat the hard drive to get rid of all my p***words and other info. I
> couldn't figure out how to reboot in ms-dos in order to do that, though. (I
> found out later that I could've made an ms-dos boot disk.) So, I ended up
> going into the configuration utility during startup, at which point I
> selected the option to "delete RAID drives" or something like that, thinking
> that it would reformat the drive.
>
> I was expecting some sort of delay as the hard drive deleted its contents
> and such, but that didn't happen. Rather, the deletion process was fairly
> instantaneous. Consequently, I have no idea whether the data in the hard
> drive was actually destroyed or not. I can't access the C: drive, either by
> rebooting or from the A: drive, and the Windows setup disk does not detect
> any hard drive. However, the BIOS says it's there. I've tried resetting the
> hard drive to non-RAID and to another RAID drive, but it still can't be
> found.
>
> Any idea what to do here? Because I'm returning the system, I don't really
> care too much about getting it to work again. I primarily just want to
> reformat the drive to detroy all the data. Suggestions?
>
> Thanks for any help,
> Mike
>
>

..cha..

I do have a full copy of Win XP. Unfortunately, after I get to the point
where I can choose to install Windows or do the Recovery option, the setup
program tells me I have no hard drive installed (for whatever option I
choose).

Or do I need to do this AFTER running FDISK?

Thanks,
Mike

--------------------
"Doug Knox MS-MVP" <dknox@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%23GM2y4y8DHA.1112@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
If the drive was formatted NTFS, then a DOS boot disk won't see it. If
you have a fully installable copy of XP, not a recovery CD, you can boot
from the CD and run setup. As part of setup, you'll be offered the
opportunity to format the drive.

From a DOS Boot disk, run FDISK and remove the Non-DOS partition.


"Michael" <trash_address@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O1kFp7x8DHA.3880@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi. OK, well, I have a Dell XPS2 that I'm returning to Dell, so I wanted
to
> reformat the hard drive to get rid of all my p***words and other info. I
> couldn't figure out how to reboot in ms-dos in order to do that, though.
(I
> found out later that I could've made an ms-dos boot disk.) So, I ended up
> going into the configuration utility during startup, at which point I
> selected the option to "delete RAID drives" or something like that,
thinking
> that it would reformat the drive.
>
> I was expecting some sort of delay as the hard drive deleted its contents
> and such, but that didn't happen. Rather, the deletion process was fairly
> instantaneous. Consequently, I have no idea whether the data in the hard
> drive was actually destroyed or not. I can't access the C: drive, either
by
> rebooting or from the A: drive, and the Windows setup disk does not detect
> any hard drive. However, the BIOS says it's there. I've tried resetting
the
> hard drive to non-RAID and to another RAID drive, but it still can't be
> found.
>
> Any idea what to do here? Because I'm returning the system, I don't really
> care too much about getting it to work again. I primarily just want to
> reformat the drive to detroy all the data. Suggestions?
>
> Thanks for any help,
> Mike
>
>