Help! how do i erase hard drive? installing win 98 again.

[maverick4114]

HI i have a digital hi note vp700 laptop. MY hard drive has a buncha crap that wont delete, and i finally got a win 98 cd. How do i erase the hard drive so it is basically like a new laptop so i can redownload only what i want? Any free hard drive eraser's i could download or anything like that? Im new on this site, so if this is the wrong place to ask this question where do i ask it at? Any help is apprectiated!

[VHockey86]

Boot from the CD (you might have to enter "setup" which is the BIOS in order to change the boot order so it checks the cd b4 the hard drive). When the 98 cd loads, select to boot with hard drive support. You will get to a dos prompt. Simply type "format c:"
without the quotes. This will clean the hard drive. After that finishes, restart and return to dos with cd support, and I think you just have to type "setup"

Note that doing this will lose all of your data. If you still have access the operating system, backup all your data first (either over a network/floppies/cd-burner)

well you have two options

use a bootdisk

www.bootdisk.com

and format by typing at the DOS prompt

C:\ format
then type y

or boot to the win 98 cd and you should be able to format from it

[HeadBand]

just make a boot disk or download one from www.bootdisk.com for win 98
then boot with it in the floppy drive and type FORMAT C: then type D: then type setup.exe and you will be in windows setup...follow the instructions from there

also use you harddrive and cd rom letters for C and D those are the most common though for win 98 atleast

if the boot disk does not work go into the bios and set it to boot the floppy before the hard drive

to get to the bios you need to press a key when it it booting up...if it dosen't tell you common ones are f1 f2 f10 f11 f12 delete and esc

[Underclocked]

If I had files that would not delete, think I would zero out the drive using the drive manufacturer's software. Killdisk is a utility that will absolutely remove everything.

http://www.killdisk.com/features.htm

[maverick4114]

well i got it back on and workin great, now i got a fwe more problems,lol. i need to find win 98 plus to download like what was on it before which i liked, and i need to find a driver for my 3com pc winmodem card. dont have the one i need when windows was installed. also its got that ugly black blank space around the whole screen like and inch on all sides like how it is when its first loading windows 98 screen. how do i get it full like edge to edge?

[Bill in SD, CA]

Welcome to TechIMO!!

Your display problem may be as simple as right clicking in a blank area of the desktop > Properties > Settings and selecting a "lesser" resolution setting in the Desktop Area.

Bill

[HeadBand]

bill hes talking about whe win 98 boot screen....when it is load ing just use the onscreen controls on the monitor

for your modem just search for (modelnumber) driver on google or whatever

[maverick4114]

Theres no adjustment knobs or anyhting for the screen. PLus how can i get the 16 bit and 24 bit color back on, ionly have 2 and 16 colors, n it sucks,lol.

[captainjrl]

You need to install the drivers for your video card in order to get the higher settings to be available again.