Reformatting Hard Drive

I purchased a Toshiba 1805 S274 laptop last summer with Windows XP installed on it. I hate it, so today I bought Windows 2000 Professional.

I want to do a clean install of this OS, but need to reformat the hard drive first.

So, do I boot up Windows XP, exit to DOS and reformat, or do I format from My Computer? user.

Also, do I need to have the Windows 2000 Pro OS disk (which BTW include Service Pack 4), in the CD drive.

I want to get this XP system off the computer ASAP, and don't want any remnants of it left hanging around.

I'm a Windows 98 hold over.

 

Hi Maine Genealogi

I'm still using 98.

Not familiar with a laptop or 2000 professional so I may be off here.

Can't you do it like you did 98? Put your startup disk in the floppy, your 2000 pro disk in the cd drive. Fdisk, partition, if you want, format, then install. Never have to look at XP again.

By the way, whats wrong with XP in your opinion? I haven't made up my mind which way to go yet.

 

You'll have some problems trying to use the 2K CD from within XP to replace XP. Probably get a message about your already having a newer version installed.

If you can set the BIOS on your laptop to use a boot order that checks for a bootable CD first, you are in good shape. And a laptop that new certainly should allow you to change boot order.

- Set to boot from CD as the first choice
- Insert 2K install CD in the drive
- Boot and if you see a message about booting from CD (probably will) select it.
- Early on you'll get the option to format. I'd remove any existing partitions, create a new partition, format it, and load 2K there.

All traces of XP should now be gone.

As a matter of curiosity, what do you dislike about XP that you think you will like about 2K? Especially if you have XP-pro now, they are very similar. I'm not fond of what I read about XP-home for my own use either although it suits lots of folks. It's OK maybe for a single PC system but with any sort of network, I like Pro better.

 

XP crashes all the time. It won't allow my daughter to play Sims.
There are way too many security issues/downloads associated with it.
I've had to reformat and do a clean install twice since June, and getting the upgrades, has been a P I T A!

Marilyn

 

Ouch Marilyn. I can see why you aren't real fond of XP.

FWIW, the crash prone behavior isn't usual for XP and may indicate a hardware issue on your laptop.

You don't say which 2K install you got but if it does not include SP4, you will need that and around a dozen post-SP4 security patches to have a safe, stable system.

 

Sets (I know, I did it last week)...

1) Get a Win98 boot disk and all for 2000 bootdisks from www.bootdisk.com,
2) Reboot the system with the Win98 disk in the floppy drive (hoping the floppy is the first boot device - if not a play round in the BIOs, you know how to do that right?),
3) Open fdisk and delete EVERY partition,
4) Restart the PC with the first 2000 floppy boot disk in (again hoping floppy is the first boot device),
follow though the steps and enter the next disk when asked,
5) Now put in the Windows 2000 disk and as it runs there should be a ScanDisk run then something about a partition (or vise-versa - I forget). At this point delete any partitions you missed in fdisk,
6) Select "Use unpartitioned space ", and the 2000 setup will format the space for you and then its plain sailing!

Tips: edit note - the user asked about Win2K and did not ask about any non Microsoft systems. Also, starting the W2K install from CD or the floppy set will give an option early on to remove existing partitions. No advantage to using the 98 fdisk. - Newt