Is there a way I can remove all the partitions from my Hard drive and do a full format (not quick)? The windows 7 install disc does a quick format but I would like to clean it thoroughly. Is there a utility I can use at boot time to do this?
View 4 RepliesI have an HP G62 laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 7. I would like to fully remove all data on the HDD and reinstall Windows 7.The 'Computer' section of the Start button shows the following HDD (not sure if these are partitions or not, but I'm assuming that they are!):
Local Disk ( C: )
Recovery ( D: )
HP_TOOLS ( F: )
I had a quick look at the D: drive and it showed a few setup files, all of which seem to be related to MSOFFICE. :-?I have been reading about data destruction programs that will absolutely wipe the drive and remove all data; I would like to do this and then reinstall Windows 7 so that the laptop effectively becomes a 'new' one.
1. How do I go about formatting the HDD with a data destruction program and then reinstall Win 7, since I do not have a bootable disc?
2. How reliable are such data destruction programs? Is there any margin of error? (I am a bit concerned about all the sensitive information that I have saved on my laptop such as bank details, family photos, etc.)
My Acer netbook has developed some kind of fault and I am unsure as to what I ought to do. The netbook does boot to BIOS and also will boot up from an external drive...but will not boot normally. I am thinking of replacing the hard drive but don't know if there could be something else wrong. It says sometimes that it can't read it and from this I am not sure if there is something else wrong. If I change the drive does it sound as though things will work? There are also a couple of other intermittent faults such as certain letters and numbers not working and then everything is fine for a while...
View 4 Replies View Relatedi have been on various forums for advice but unable to solve - this is the problem -
* it turns on & I CAN get into advanced menus
* it will not repair itself no matter what
* it will not go into any other modes , safe Etc....therefore I cannot restore to factory settings etc....
* ive Tried all tricks such as F8, Alt & F11 etc..... to get into advanced menu settings - all lead to the black screen
* everything i click on enter leads to a black screen - only a white curser appears.
its as if there is no way of accessing the computer disc/ hard drive in anyway from boot up. there is clearly a hardware problem but i cannot access anything internal beyond ordinary & advanced menus i just keep being led to the black screen & no activity. the menus work & that is all. i run Windows 7 on a Dell inspiron 1564.
My acer says the hard disc is full, but I have no data on it except itunes and a few programs.I can not see what is using the space. I have checked all files, including hidden ones, carried out disc clean and defrags etc, but still it says full.
View 1 Replies View RelatedCan I format a Hard Drive with Windows 7 using a 2000 format disk. If so, what are the prompts i see and action on boot-up before I use the format C. Done it before but just forgot
View 4 Replies View RelatedSo I was not sure about Windows 7 and I have a PC with 2 physically separate internal hard drives. So I retained my vista OS on my C:/ drive (named OS) and did a clean install of windows 7 (using an upgrade disc student edition) on my D:/ drive (DATA).
After setting up, using and liking windows 7, I want to eliminate my vista system, which is boated now, completely. However, apparently with an intel chipset, I can't simply format the OS drive using the disc management utility, even though when I boot windows 7, it is renamed the D:/ drive because the bootloader is on the OS drive. I have tried changing the DATA drive to an active, bootable drive in disc manager. Unfortunately, I can't seem to make it the primary partition.
Originally found this forum on google with a hit on help: cannot reformat c drive
useful information, but I am not completely sure what it means.
After spending about a week customizing my Windows 7 install, I am not too happy about the possibility having to reinstall on the OS drive and go from there. What method should I use to format my OS drive, and still be able to boot the DATA drive. I would then like to use my OS drive for storing music, and pictures, etc.
I have an external HD to work with. I suppose I could image the DATA drive with the Windows 7 install, format the OS drive, and then restore the image to the C drive, but that still leaves the problem of how to format the OS drive in the first place. Also, I've never done a recovery from image before, and am not big on the prospect.
Today I upgraded my 64 bit Vista Ultimate to 32 bit Seven Ultimate (retail). I did it by using the DVD to boot up and do a custom install as it wouldn't do a standard upgrade cos of the 32 bit/64 bit clash.
Anyway, it worked smoothly up until I go to my external hard drive to look at some old photos. I plug it in and it gets recognised, but then I get told that it needs formatting before it can be used. No way am I doing that!
I check the hard drive on another machine running XP and the drive is fine.
Any idea what's going on?
Perhaps I should just format the C drive and do a completely clean re-install of Seven?
Is it possible to use the upgrade disc to format C drive (it has the Windows 7 RC activated, I can also reinstall Windows Vista if I have to), and do a clean install?
View 8 Replies View RelatedMy son is running Windows 7 Pro on a sad little 1 Gb RAM PC 3.4 GHz and of course it is somewhat underpowered and the PC is badly in need of a formatiing anyway..Problem is I can't get to a Format command anywhere??????I can get into BIOS OK, set the DVD as first boot option but when I save it (F10) and then it reboots, the screen always comes up with the "Start Windows Normally" option! I can reach the "boot from any CD/DVD option but for some weird option the arrows on the keyboard will not alow me to move away from this latter choice yet the board works fins with everything else.I can't get it to boot from the original Win 7 CD, Windows Vista or even Pro OS's ................ so of course again cannot get to the format command.I have created a System Recovery Disc but I am not 110% sure how to use this disc but nonetheless cannot seem to find an option for formatting there anyway.
View 2 Replies View RelatedFORMATING my C drive and how to reinstall windows 7 again with the help of recovery disc.
my computer was formated and windows were reinstalled but it was not done by me. I have the recovery discs provided by the hp laptop company.
i have windows 7 home premium 64 bit.My device is HP DV6 6121tx
So I have an bit of an odd and I think unique problem (as many searches came up with no solutions). Simply put, my boot manager is missing, but only when my windows install disc is not in the disc drive. It started several months ago and I just left it be, let the disc it int he disc drive and it was not that big of a deal. But just did a clean install couple days ago I re-installed windows 7 ultimate 64-bit on my computer (using an upgrade disc if that makes a difference).I formatted the drive with what I guess is a quick format (the option the install disc gives you). I have tried doing a repair with the install disc but no problems are found every time I try.
View 1 Replies View RelatedJust bought a new computer (well, used but new to me). Last week there was 25GB free. I haven't downloaded anything and I got a pop up saying I have 8 mg. left. I have spent an hour trying to figure out where the space is. I can't tell. Windows 7. I have Dropbox on it, could this be it? I have downloaded a few small programs (less the 20 mg.) I also downloaded Java which has a very special way of screwing computers up, I have noticed.
View 7 Replies View RelatedCompleted an install from XP to 7 by copying the install disk to my lap top hard drive, then running "setup".
Thought that this would delete the all of the old files. And, indeed, when I search for known file names, the search comes up empty.
However, the properties of the disk show the same amount of disk space used as before the install.
How can I remove these "ghost" files?
Can you recommend a Windows 7 compatible encryption program that will encrypt the whole hard drive? I checked the true-crypt website, but Windows 7 is not listed as supported yet. I'm currently using RC1 and when I get my RTM copies they will be Home Premium (so not Bitlocker).
View 6 Replies View Relatedi have xp at the moment and upgrading to Windows 7 64bit. but i don't have access to an external hard drive so i can store my data with windows easy transfer
i also have 2 hard drives with one completely empty and one with all my data.
is it possible to just unplug the one with all my data and install windows 7 normally on my empy one and then just replug it in? since i don't have an external would this be a good alternative or possible _at_ all?
My drive passed SMART extended self test that scans the entire disk surface. Is the full format with command FORMAT FS=NTFS overkill?
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have 2 format programs recommended by GEEK, easus and mini tool partition...they will not allow me to do partition...The disk layout is C: system and files D: hp recovery data E:hp files...When I start I can do resize and get an allocated file, then on the allocated file I click create and then I get message this is not a primary, and I cannot find a way to change it....and if I use the other program(mini) it says there is no boot files.
View 9 Replies View Relatedinstalling build 7264.
mounted the ISO in magic disk and did custom installation.
the only options is load driver and i see the partition but i can't format it.
what to do?
I am doing a fresh install of Windows. I have done this before with XP, but the options are a little different on the Windows 7 DVD. What I am concerned about is the ability to format C Drive with a "Full Format" rather than a "Quick Format". The XP disk would give the user an option, but the Windows 7 dvd does not - it just has "Format" and appears to only do a quick format. How can I do a "Full Format" of C then install the Windows 7 on it?
View 2 Replies View Relatedwould like to know the easiest way to format my old hard drive using windows 7 64bit. so that im able to install windows7?
View 3 Replies View Relatedi have xp home 32 bit as my OS now and i have another hard drive installed and ready to install win 7 64 bit on to. can i do this with xp running or should i disconnect the HD with xp on it, then when i start the computer it won't see any OS and then i could boot from the win7 dvd and do a clean installl and then re=connect the HD with xp on it.
then when i start computer i should get the choice of which one to boot from or is this not the way to do it?? i want the OS's on separate HD's for now as i am sure that not everything that i want to run will work on the 64 bit win7 until i can afford to get all the programs i use to work on win7.
my hard drive D shows full wehn i have only 2.5gp used but the rest are all fre but then it shows that the drive is full.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI'm trying to set up the Backup to an internal hard drive called Z: After originally installing win 7 64bit, I had to manually assign a drive letter to the hd before windows would see it. This HD has nothing on it and is not used often so its perfect for my windows backup. However, when I start the backup setup - it does not list that hard drive in my options to backup to. When I manually goto CMD to run "wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:f: -include:c:" it gives me the error saying the HD is read-only and cannot store backups.
Under disk management, I am not allowed to reformat the z: drive - it says "Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk." It lists the Z: drive as being system, active, primary partition - WHY DOES WINDOWS THINK IT IS THE SYSTEM HD? It has 100% free space according to diskmanagement.
I ran a chkdsk on z: (it is still going on step 5) and there doesn't seem to be any errors yet :/ Any suggestions?
hard drive registers in BIOS, but not in the windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit installation screen. Any questions I will answer RIGHT away. Oh dear God please help me. I took it in to a repair shop and I think I knew more than they did and left without any substantive help (but a $40 bill ). Do I need to format the HD? Would drivers help? All the websites say everything should be compatible - no problem - but nothing here.
WD Blue 640 GB (single HDD)
AMD Phenom ii
GA-MA785GM-US2H Gigabyte motherboard
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
I got a Western Digital 2TB Green Hard Drive and for some reason I can't seem to format it properly. I used Windows Disk Management and Partition Wizard and on one it takes a long time to format and on Partition Wizard, it stops at 90% complete and then just hangs there. Is this a bad drive or what should I do to format it?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have a 750Gb drive that I would like to reformat so I can use it for backups. When I try to format the drive I am told windows can't format it.
The drive was previously used as a C drive and held an intstalation of Vista. On the drives and Proram and Windows folders. When I tried to delete them I was told I needed permission from trusted installer. I found a "solution" to this on a microsoft site which effectively said to set the owner to the administrator group. I have done this. Now when I try and delete them I am told I need permission from the administrator. I have logged on as the administrator.
Formatting is also still forbidden. The files I want rid of take up 50Gb of space.
I'm currently trying to format a hard drive to exFAT. It's not my main one it will be used for sharing files on my home network. Apparently you can do it just by right clicking the drive and choosing format however I just have the NTFS option, I don't have exFAT. Is there something else I need to do or get so I can format it?
View 1 Replies View Relatedi have a retail upgrade version of windows 7 professional x86 am i able to format the hard drive using the disk...i dont want to use it to install windows 7
View 4 Replies View RelatedSo I cannot format my secondary hard drive where Windows 7 RC was installed. Did I install Windows 7 incorrectly onto my system? I've posted a screenshot from my Computer Management window.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a LaCie 150 GB hard drive that I backed up all the files onto from my previous computer, a Mac. I now have a Lenovo laptop with Windows 7, and want to transfer some files to it. The hard drive can be seen in Devices, but not in "My Computer." I played around, not really knowing what I was doing, but I added a volume to the device in Computer Management. Now Windows says I need to format this volume before using it, which, obviously, I'm unwilling to do.
View 7 Replies View Related