Can't Format C

[UltimaBoB]

I'm trying to put a fresh Windows XP install on my friend's computer that he is having issues with.

The problem is that no matter what I do, it always boots into windows. Even if I disable HDD as a boot device and put NO DISK in the drive, it will still boot into windows. If I put CDROM as the priority boot device, and put the XP disc in the drive, it will straight boot into windows off the CD and give me no prompts for a reformat.

I reinstalled windows FROM WINDOWS and it gave me the option to delete the previous OS and then reinstall. But I have heard that this is not as good as a true reformat and that is what I want to do.

Any ideas on how I can get the computer to stop going straight into windows?

Mobo is Gigabyte P35-d3sl

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Are you seeing any message to boot from the CD when booting up. It normally will say "Press a key to boot from CD". Is there a boot menu option on that motherboard? Sometimes F11 or F12 will bring up a boot menu where you can select the device to boot from. Are you using a bootable (genuine) Windows XP CD?

 

[UltimaBoB]

I'm using a bootable genuine xp cd.

I see the message to press anything to boot, but whether I press a key or not, it still boots into windows.

I have a genuine XP CD now, but before he had a crack copy that got around activation by tricking the computer into thinking it was in safe mode all the time. When I reinstalled THROUGH WINDOWS it gave me the option to delete the current OS, which I took. But it still doesn't seem that it was as clean as a Formatted install. WHen I put in my Nvidia drivers after the reinstall, it said there were already some Nvidia driver fragments on there until I got a driver cleaner. This would never happen with a Formatted install.

I am suspicious that the old registry is still there somehow and that this old crack that convinced the computer it was in Safe mode to bypass WPA might still be doing wonky things.

I have no floppy, no competence to remove hardware or drives, and no second computer. But I want to 100% nule the current install and format C and then fresh install. Don't know how to do that.

 

[corkyg]

Remove the C drive and put it in an eternal case, You can then format it on any machine.

 

[UltimaBoB]

Maybe I will have someone do it for me if I have to, but is there any other way to do it on this machine without messing with the hardware?

Does it sound like the HDD has issues?

 

[ViRGE]

No, it sounds like the motherboard or optical drive are having issues.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: UltimaBoB
I'm trying to put a fresh Windows XP install on my friend's computer that he is having issues with.

The problem is that no matter what I do, it always boots into windows. Even if I disable HDD as a boot device and put NO DISK in the drive, it will still boot into windows. If I put CDROM as the priority boot device, and put the XP disc in the drive, it will straight boot into windows off the CD and give me no prompts for a reformat.

I reinstalled windows FROM WINDOWS and it gave me the option to delete the previous OS and then reinstall. But I have heard that this is not as good as a true reformat and that is what I want to do.

Any ideas on how I can get the computer to stop going straight into windows?

Mobo is Gigabyte P35-d3sl

Set the CD/DVD-ROM as the primary boot device, hard drive as secondary. When you boot up the computer, make sure you hit any key as soon as the message pops up.

Once the gui loads, make sure to delete the primary partition, then choose to install windows on it. When installing windows over the blank partition, choose to format in NTFS.

If you truly disable the hard drive as a boot device the computer will not boot into windows, PERIOD. So chances are you aren't saving the BIOS changes correctly or something along those lines if that is the case.

Make sure you have the full install of windows, not an upgrade version. If you have the upgrade version then it's going to act odd.

 

[UltimaBoB]

I'll try that. For the record, I disbled the HDD in the BIOS from the boot priority. I don't think I disabled it altogether.

 

[degibson]

Originally posted by: Juddog

If you truly disable the hard drive as a boot device the computer will not boot into windows, PERIOD.

This is true ~95% of the time, though I had a frustrating experience with a motherboard that had a 'Try alternate boot devices' boolean flag (which I didn't notice for several hours). It turns out that if that flag is ON and all the specified boot devices fail, it tries everything -- net, cd, disk, floppy, everything, in whatever order it pleases. For me, it has HDD first, net second, cd third.

 

[boomerang]

I've had similar problems.

Wipe the boot sector of the drive. I use the utility from the HD manufacturer.

It won't boot from it then!

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I've had similar problems.

Wipe the boot sector of the drive. I use the utility from the HD manufacturer.

It won't boot from it then!

That's the way I do it. Only takes a few minutes and your done.

 

[UltimaBoB]

sorted!

Apparently you have to enable the keyboard in the bios so that it works in the pre-windows/pre-bios situations. So when I pressed any key to boot from the CD, it wasn't registering. Kind of a Doh! moment. First reinstall with this mobo so I didn't really think/know about it.

Got a good reinstall. Monitor still flickers. Flickers in the Bios too - but you need light/white screens to make it really go. Seems to be getting worse. Oh well, at least I know it isn't software.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: UltimaBoB
sorted!

Apparently you have to enable the keyboard in the bios so that it works in the pre-windows/pre-bios situations. So when I pressed any key to boot from the CD, it wasn't registering. Kind of a Doh! moment. First reinstall with this mobo so I didn't really think/know about it.

Got a good reinstall. Monitor still flickers. Flickers in the Bios too - but you need light/white screens to make it really go. Seems to be getting worse. Oh well, at least I know it isn't software.

If the monitor is flickering in the BIOS screen, you have most likely one of two issues: either the monitor is bad, or the video card is bad. Try the monitor on another computer - does it still flicker? If so, then you've narrowed it down to your video card (or motherboard if you're using an integrated video card).

Last 4 out of 4 times this has happened to me, it was the video card that was either bad or not fully in the socket (the one time a buddy brought over his computer and I had the issue; when I opened up the case, I found that the video card wasn't fully seated into the AGP slot. Reseated the card, rebooted, started working fine again).

 

[degibson]

I agree with Juddog -- this has happened twice to me, and it has been the video card both times. Once I managed to 'fix' it for awhile by reseating and cleaning the card.