How to erase my hard disk drive and start over

Issue:

How to erase my hard disk drive and start over.

Additional information:

• If you are looking for information about securely erasing your hard disk drive, or making it difficult or close to impossible to recover or read the old data, we recommend you refer to document CH000520.
• If you are attempting to use a recovery or restore diskette to restore your computer information and are experiencing issues, please refer to document CH000566.

Checklist:

The below recommendations are what a user should check before completely erasing their computer hard disk drive and starting over. Following these steps can prevent hours of hassles and headaches.

Did you backup all information on your hard disk drive?
Although most current operating systems have driver support for most hardware have you made sure you have the diskettes/CD's for your computer hardware devices so you can install the hardware after erasing everything?
If you are reinstalling Windows 98 or lower do you have a boot disk?
Have you tested the boot disk or bootable CD to make sure it loads properly?
Do you need an operating system CD or Restore CD to reinstall the operating system?
Do you have the necessary licensing and OEM numbers needed to register your software again?
If you are planning to use a floppy diskette version to install your software you may want to verify all diskettes are accessible to prevent you from erasing the hard disk drive and not being able to recover the data because of a bad diskette.

Solution:

Please remember that following the below steps will erase all of the information on your hard disk drive. Once the below steps have been completed, you will not be able to reverse the steps if you want to recover possible lost data. Please make sure that you have checked the above checklist verifying that you have not forgotten a possible important step. Finally, the below steps are the most recommended steps and it is possible that the manufacturer of your computer may have another method of restoring your computer using their software.

Erasing the hard disk drive

The below steps are for users with MS-DOS 5.0+, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows NT 4.0.

• If you are running or plan on installing Microsoft Windows 2000 please see document CH000544.
• If you are running or plan on installing Microsoft Windows XP please see document CH000647.

1. Place the bootable diskette or disc inside the computer and reboot to get to the DOS prompt. In some cases you may need to boot the computer with CD-ROM support or press a key to boot from the disk.
2. At the MS-DOS prompt type format c: /s
3. The computer will ask you "Are you sure you want to erase everything on drive c:" if you are ok with doing this press "Y" for yes and press enter.
4. After doing this, the computer will begin the formatting process. If you receive errors during this process, please see document CH000180.
5. Once the format process is completed successfully, at the MS-DOS prompt type fdisk /mbr and press enter. This should return you back to the MS-DOS prompt with no message. This step is not required but recommended.
6. Once back at the MS-DOS prompt, reboot the computer with the boot disk still in the computer.
7. Once back at the MS-DOS prompt, insert either the diskettes for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, or the CD for Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT and click the appropriate link

MS-DOS users
Windows 3.x users
Windows 95 floppy diskette users
Windows 95 CD users
Windows 98 users
Windows NT 4.0 users

MS-DOS users

1. Place the first MS-DOS diskette into the computer.
2. At the A:\> type setup and press enter to being the installation.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Note: If you discover a bad diskette during the installation, it is recommended that you contact Microsoft for a possible replacement.

Windows 3.x users

1. Place the first diskette of Windows 3.x into the computer.
2. At the A:\> type setup and press enter to begin the installation.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Note: If you discover a bad diskette during the installation, it is recommended that you contact Microsoft for a possible replacement.

Windows 95 floppy diskette users

1. Place the first diskette of Windows 95 into the computer.
2. At the A:\> type setup and press enter to begin the installation.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Note: If you discover a bad diskette during the installation of Windows 95 it is recommended you contact Microsoft for possible replacement.

Windows 95 CD users

1. Place the CD into the computer.
2. Type X: (where x is the CD-ROM drive, generally this is D).
3. Once at the appropriate drive, type CD WIN95 and press enter to get into the Windows 95 directory.
4. Once at X:\WIN95> type setup to begin the installation
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

If you are encountering issues during the setup process, you can add additional switches to the setup command line. These switches can be found on our Windows 95 Setup Switches page.

Windows 98 users

Complete information about the setup and installation of Windows 98 once the hard disk drive has been erased can be found on document CH000569.

Windows NT 4.0 users

Windows NT can be installed several different ways. We recommend that Windows NT be installed using the below steps as we feel that these steps by far are the easiest way to install Windows NT 4.0.

First, we recommend that all users wanting to simply install Windows NT use the /b switch which allows the users to not need to create the diskettes. We do, however, recommend that the user create the Emergency recover diskettes if they have not already been created after the installation of Windows NT.

Finally, before the installation of Windows NT, it is recommended that you run SMARTDRV, which will help the installation of Windows NT run a lot faster.

1. Place the CD into the computer.
2. Type X: (where x is the CD-ROM drive, generally this is D).
3. Once at the appropriate drive, type CD WINNT and press enter to get into the Windows 95 directory.
4. Once at X:\WINNT> type winnt /b.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

How to lock / unlock the hard disk drive

Issue:

How to lock / unlock the hard disk drive.

Cause:

A hard disk drive may be come locked or unlocked allowing or not allowing for software to have direct disk access. You may encounter an error indicating to unlock the hard disk drive in any of the below circumstances.

1. Attempting to install another operating system.
2. Attempting to fdisk the hard drive.
3. Installing software.

Solutions:

To unlock the hard disk drive

unlock x:

The x represents the letter of the hard disk drive that you wish to unlock. For example, if you needed to unlock the C: drive, type c in the place of x.

Additional information about the lock and unlock command can be found on our Lock / Unlock page.

To lock the hard disk drive

lock x:

The x represents the letter of the hard disk drive that you wish to lock. For example, if you needed to lock the C: drive, type c in the place of x.

Additional information about the lock and unlock command can be found on our Lock / Unlock page.

Missing operating system

Issue:

Missing operating system.

Cause:

Below is a listing of the different causes of the Missing operating system error message.

1. Missing or corrupted command.com or other boot files.
2. Computer Virus
3. Boot Record is corrupted.
4. Hard drive has failed or has been erased.

Solution:

If you are receiving the Missing operating system error message it is recommended that you follow the below steps to resolve the issue.

Caution: The below steps suggest using a bootable diskette, make sure this bootable diskette is designed for your operating system. For example, do not use a Window 98 bootable diskette and follow the below steps on a computer with Windows XP.

1. Using a write protected bootable diskette, boot from the diskette and type "sys c:" after pressing enter this should give you the message system transferred. Once this has been completed, reboot the computer. If you get any other messages, see our Boot disk page.
2. If the number one does not resolve your issue, boot from the diskette again and at the prompt type "fdisk /mbr" and press enter. This should just return you back to the prompt. Once back at the prompt, reboot the computer.
3. Finally, if one and two are unable to resolve your issue, it is recommended that you boot from the boot diskette again and reinstall or format and reinstall the operating system.

Additional information about formatting your computer and starting over can be found on document CH000186.

Changing the drive letter of a disk drive

Issue:

Changing the drive letter of a disk drive.

Cause:

Users may wish to change their CD-ROM drive or other disk drive letter to help accommodate other new devices or to meet their personal preferences.

Solution:

Changing the drive letter of a CD-ROM , CD-R, CD-RW, or other disc drive.
Changing the drive letter of a hard disk drive.
Changing the drive letter of a floppy disk drive.

Changing the drive letter of a CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, or other disc drive.

Note: When attempting to change the drive letters on your disc drives you can only change the drive to any drive letter after the hard disk drive. For example, if your hard disk drive is C: you can only change your CD drive to D: through Z:. If you have multiple hard disk drives and/or partitions and your last drive letter is F: you can only change your CD drive to G: through Z:. Finally, computers will never allow a CD-ROM to be setup as A:, B: or C:.

Windows 2000 and XP users
Windows 95, 98 and ME users
MS-DOS and Windows 3.x users

Windows 2000, Windows XP users:

1. Users who wish to change the CD disc drive letter in Windows 2000 and Windows XP must have Administrator rights. If you are logged in as a user that does not have these privileges, log out and log in as a user account that does have these rights.
2. Open Control Panel.
3. Open Administrator Tools.
4. Open Computer Management.
5. Open Disk Management.
6. Locate the drive that you wish to change the drive letter, right-click on that drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME users:

1. Open the Device Manager.
2. Click the "+" next to "CD-ROM" or "DVD / CD-ROM drives."
3. Double-click the drive you wish to change the letter for.
4. Click the "Settings" tab.
5. Where the computer lists the start and end drive letter, enter the drive letter you wish to change the drive to and click ok.

6. Restart the computer.

MS-DOS and Windows 3.X users:

1. If you are in Windows, Exit to a MS-DOS prompt.
2. Type cd\ and press enter.
3. Once at DOS type "edit c:\autoexec.bat" (without the quotes).
4. In the autoexec.bat window locate the MSCDEX line.
5. Once this line has been found, if it does not have /L:x (were x is the letter of the drive) go to the end of the line and type /L:D (this example should assign the CD-ROM to D: this can be anything up to Z).
6. Once you have made the changes go up to file (if you do not have a mouse press Alt+F) then choose exit and say "Yes" to save the changes.
7. Once back at DOS type "edit c:\config.sys" (without the quotes)
8. In the config.sys window look for anything that says LASTDRIVE=x (were x is the last drive letter). If you do not see this line go to the very beginning of your config.sys and add LASTDRIVE=K (or the letter that you want to be the ending letter. Note this must be anything between C and Z.
9. Once you have made the changes go up to file (if you do not have a mouse press Alt+F) then choose exit and say "Yes" to save the changes.
10. Reboot computer.

Changing the drive letter of a hard disk drive.

Unlike CD drives and other removable drives, hard disk drives cannot change drive letters. If you wish to create multiple drive letters for a single hard disk drive you can partition the hard disk drive into multiple segments. However, this will only create multiple drives in alphabetical order, such as C: D: and E:. You cannot take a hard drive that has been assigned as D: and assign it to an alternate letter such as K:.

Changing the drive letter of a floppy disk drive.

In some computer environments you can change the drive letters of a floppy disk drive between A: and B:. However, all IBM compatible computers only support the standard floppy disk drive on either A: or B: and no other drive letter. If you wish to change the drive letter your CMOS setup must support this option.

Additional information:

• If you're looking for additional information about how to change from one drive to another drive in MS-DOS see document CH000515.

My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it?

Issue: My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it? Cause: This issue can be caused by any of the below possibilities. Hard disk drive is short on available disk space. Several software programs have been installed/uninstalled leaving behind bad files and/or confusing the software. Data Corruption. Computer is overheating. Bad Hardware. Additional information: If your Internet is slow this document does not contain information about this issue. See document CH000986 for additional information about why your Internet connection may be slow. PC Solution: Below are steps for Microsoft Windows that should help speed up the computer or determine why the computer is running slow. Not enough hard disk drive space If you have a hard disk drive that is 2GB or smaller, ensure that there is at least 200MB of hard disk drive space free. If you have a hard drive larger than this size, verify that there is at least 500MB of free hard disk space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files. See document CH000528 for additional information about regaining lost hard disk drive space. Hard drive corrupted or fragmented Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order. Background programs Remove or disable any TSRs or programs that automatically start each time the computer boots. See document CHTSR for additional information. Hardware conflicts Verify that the Device Manager has no conflicts, but if conflicts are present, resolve them. Issues with Windows XP prefetch If you have Windows XP try deleting all files in the prefetch directory. These are prefetch files and can lower system resources if loading programs no longer being used. See our prefetch definition for additional information about prefetch. Issues in Windows 95 / 98 autoexec.bat / config.sys If you are using Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 and do not plan on running any MS-DOS programs from MS-DOS follow the below steps. Click Start, Run and type command and press enter. In the MS-DOS window type cd\ to get to C:\> and then type ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch and ren config.sys config.ch This will rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys and help make sure memory is being optimized through Windows. Computer or processor is overheating Make sure your computer and processor is not overheating, excessive heat can cause a significant decrease in computer performance some processors will even lower the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues. Additional information about your processor temperature and was of determining how hot it is can be found on document CH000687. Specific operating system basic troubleshooting Try running through the basic troubleshooting steps for your operating system. Erase computer and start over Finally, if none of the above solutions resolve your issues, it is recommended that you either reinstall Windows and/or erase everything and then start over. Additional information about how to do this can be found on document CH000186. Hardware issues If your computer continues to be slow after going over each of the above recommendations it's possible that your computer is experiencing a more serious hardware related issue such as a failing component in the computer. This could be a failing or bad CPU, RAM, Motherboard, or other component.