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Meg R
Lv 5
Meg R asked in Computers & InternetHardwareLaptops & Notebooks · 1 decade ago

Can't ReFormat my Laptop (Windows xp) Please HELP ?

Ok so there is something wrong with my windows XP on my hubby's laptop, and it won't let us in at all.

We tried to do the whole "safe mode" thing, "last known good configurations" thing, etc. None work.

Now we can't even get to a screen that will let us reformat. I've tried every F button and the esc button.

When I do esc to boot from the repair cd, it doesn't work it just keeps going in the circle like it does on it's own.

Then as far as the F buttons go, the only ones that do anything are F8, F10 (which was reformat on my desktop), and F12. F12 just did this media check thing and then went back to the regular.

F10 on this compute just goes to the settings menu. I can't find anything in this menu to reformat.

F8 goes to the menu that has the different options like "safe mode with controls", "last known...", etc but I have tried each and every single one and NONE of them do anything productive.

I really don't know what to do. I just want to reformat it and get it over with but now it seems to gotten worse/.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is Reformatting so different on a laptop?

Thanks in advance and HAPPY NEW YEARS.

Update:

Ya, you can tell i dont know much about computers (and dont have the cash to take it into a shop)

Thanks SO Much for your suggestions. I'll take a look at the disk i have at home and make sure its the copy of XP and try all of your suggestions.

xoxoxo

3 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I think you might be slightly confused. You will have to have a windows xp or vista disk laying around to boot off of before you can format. Throw a windows xp disk in his computer and boot off of it. It should take you to a blue screen.

    Hit F8 at the liscense agreement

    Hit escape if you see the "Do you want to try to repair the windows installation screen"

    Select the partition to delete and push "Del" Then "Enter" Then "L" and it will start to format the drive. You want to do a quick format.

    After its done formatting it will reboot and finish the installation. Watch it though because it does ask a few questions before it completes its self and lets you back into a freshly installed virus free computer.

  • Gavin J
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Do you even have the original disk...that would help A LOT

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    No there is no difference between laptop and desktop formats. If you have access to a XP disc you might want to try a repair before you do a format.

    One other thing you could try is if you can get into a command prompt, either by booting into it or using an XP install disc you could try a chkdsk /r command that might get you fixed up.

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