gsxr1300
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 1
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 Posted:
Wed May 03, 2006 3:45 pm Post subject:
Formatting C drive from DOS |
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I have formatted many drives in the past, however this time I am having difficulty.
Quick History:
My PC was taken over by a very hostile Spam infestataion. My browser homepage was taken over by blank:, and there was a cycled program running which would act like Windows had detected a virus and advised me to click the bubble to go to the web site to buy a spam software to fix the issue. It was hostile enough so that when using Ctrl-Alt-Delete to view the running processes in hopes of killing the routine, it disabled the selection of any of the processes and rendered the "End Process" button usless.
Hence the format. This is my problem which I am not sure is related to the noted symptoms. I prefer to format drom the dos prompt instead of using the CD from Dell. I know there is probly not much difference, but I prefer to use the "unconditional" format so that it is fully and cleanly wiped. The issue is that when I place a Windows 95 boot floppy and get to an A prompt, and type FORMAT C: /u is says "Invalid drive specification". I tired just using FORMAT C: but this gives the same result.
Questions:
What am I doing wrong?
If the factory disk just as good as a DOS format?
Thank you for any help |
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Abraxas
Joined: 15 Feb 2006
Posts: 16
Location: Vermont
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Sun May 28, 2006 11:24 pm Post subject:
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The problem is that XP uses the NTFS file system, a system newer than DOS and not "seen" by it.
There are a few programs that will allow you to format NTFS, like Paragon Partition Manager, but none that I know of that is free.
The Dell disk uses diskpart.exe to partition and an updated format. For stability of your XP installation, I'd suggest using XP setup to perform as many disk operations as possible.
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