NEwbie question on reformatting

[Bigedmond]

Ok, this is my first attemped at reformating windows xp.
I am using a 98 boot disk, and get all the way to teh
format c: /s and it tells me drive c: cannot be
formatted.

What is the fix for this, and how would i go about doing
it.

I am reformatting because i get a nice trojan that shuts
my computer down after i installed a virus software.

Please help

[Danny Bleu]

Have you considered using FDISK and removing all partitions? Then perform a
'clean' install which will give you the option to format?.

"Bigedmond" > wrote in message
...
Ok, this is my first attemped at reformating windows xp.
I am using a 98 boot disk, and get all the way to teh
format c: /s and it tells me drive c: cannot be
formatted.

What is the fix for this, and how would i go about doing
it.

I am reformatting because i get a nice trojan that shuts
my computer down after i installed a virus software.

Please help

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

"Bigedmond" > wrote in message
...
> Ok, this is my first attemped at reformating windows xp.
> I am using a 98 boot disk, and get all the way to teh
> format c: /s and it tells me drive c: cannot be
> formatted.
>
> What is the fix for this, and how would i go about doing
> it.
>
> I am reformatting because i get a nice trojan that shuts
> my computer down after i installed a virus software.
>

Bigedmond

You do not need to be using boot disks etc.
Just boot from the Windows XP CD and you can reformat etc from inside the
setup routine.
Just follow the on screen prompts
--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

"Bigedmond" > wrote in message
...
> Ok, this is my first attemped at reformating windows xp.
> I am using a 98 boot disk, and get all the way to teh
> format c: /s and it tells me drive c: cannot be
> formatted.
>
> What is the fix for this, and how would i go about doing
> it.
>
> I am reformatting because i get a nice trojan that shuts
> my computer down after i installed a virus software.
>
> Please help
>

[R. C. White]

Hi, Edmond.

Step 1: Throw away the Win98 boot disk. (Or at least hide it so that you
won't be tempted to use it ever again. It's a part of the past of
computing, not of the future - or even the present, once you've weaned
yourself from Win9x/ME.)

Step 2: Boot from the WinXP and follow the prompts, including the very
early one to repartition (optional) and reformat the hard drive.

That's it.

The only reason I can think of that you might want a Win9x/ME boot disk in
the future is if you need to format a >32 GB volume as FAT32. But if you
don't plan to install Win9x/ME on your computer in the future, then there's
no reason to continue to use FAT at all.

Setup will handle formatting the system partition (Drive C:) and the boot
volume (probably also Drive C:), which is enough to get WinXP installed and
running. From WinXP, you should find Disk Management (from the Run prompt,
type: diskmgmt.msc) and use it to handle all the jobs that FDISK and
Format.exe used to do - and more. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Bigedmond" > wrote in message
...
> Ok, this is my first attemped at reformating windows xp.
> I am using a 98 boot disk, and get all the way to teh
> format c: /s and it tells me drive c: cannot be
> formatted.
>
> What is the fix for this, and how would i go about doing
> it.
>
> I am reformatting because i get a nice trojan that shuts
> my computer down after i installed a virus software.
>
> Please help