Problem formatting hard drive!

[joelmoss]

OK, I hope someone can help me.

I am trying to format my hard drive, but when I type the "format C: /s" command into DOS, i get a command not found error!

WHY?

[Paul S]

Format is a DOS external command, ie, you need the file format.com
Usually this file is in the Win 9X CD.

[SniperUK]

I'm not sure why you have the '/s' at the end?
when I tryed it it gave an 'Invalid Parameter'

any way just type 'format c:' it should work...

[Paul S]

Originally posted by Luqman
I'm not sure why you have the '/s' at the end?
when I tryed it it gave an 'Invalid Parameter'

any way just type 'format c:' it should work...

If you use the parameter S, format copies the system files to the formatted disk (to make it bootable)

[Technosailor]

try fdisk for the format and then from type sys c: (I believe). Are you installing an OS on top of the drive? Usually they will format the hard drvie on installation and put it's own system files on. Then again, if you're not installing an OS, you can sytem format any drive not in use from Windows.

Sketch

[Paul S]

Originally posted by Sketch
try fdisk for the format and then from type sys c: (I believe). Are you installing an OS on top of the drive? Usually they will format the hard drvie on installation and put it's own system files on. Then again, if you're not installing an OS, you can sytem format any drive not in use from Windows.

Sketch

Sketch, FDISK is a more risky command than format. It modifies the hard drive logical structure (ie add or delete HD partitions), use it with extremely care because you can lost all the information in your hard disk.

[Technosailor]

Yes it is far more risky, but it's effective.

Sketch

[Nicky]

I use fdisk, never had any problems with it.

[Paul S]

Both are partially right

FDISK is unnecessary unless you want to modify your partitions, it will works but its not thanks to FDISK but Windows. After you use FDISK, the disk is not formatted. Only after you run the setup Windows program, Windows detects the disk and format it.

Besides joelmoss said "i get a command not found error!", it sounds like the program file for format (format.com) is missing.

[tdevil]

Did you try format C: /s without a space as in C:/s?