Format hard drive windows xp no disk

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products.

List of Partners vendors. By Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. Reviewed by Ryan Perian. Tweet Share Email. What to Know Open Disk Management, locate and right-click the disk you'd like to format. Choose Format. Enter a name for the drive. Under Allocation unit size , choose Default. Uncheck Perform a quick format. It's a good idea to check all settings and to familiarize yourself with their functions before proceeding.

Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Finally, let's go over the main contents of this tutorial. Note again, restoring your computer to factory reset can't wipe the hard drive, some restore your computer to the factory state and delete data partitions. Some just restore the system disk. If you wish to factory reset Windows XP , you can read the guides carefully. Step 1.

Step 2. Set the time for which you want to wipe your partition, then click "OK". Step 3. Click the "Execute Operation" and "Apply" to wipe the data on your partition.

To delete everything on Windows XP, restoring it to the factory setting is the right way. You can do it with or without the original disc. If you do not want to erase your computer data and system by creating a boot disk, you can also do it by connecting the disk to another computer. Remove the disk from the original Windows XP and connect it to another computer as a secondary disk, and then install and use EaseUS BitWiper to wipe the computer.

To wipe a computer completely clean without any chance of recovery, we recommend you try to erase the data and OS together. Formatting your C: drive will completely delete your Windows installation, as well as any data stored on the C: drive. This usually includes all of your documents, pictures, and downloaded files. Make sure to save anything you want to keep to another location. See this guide for more details on how to backup data.

Insert your Windows XP installation disc. Formatting the C: drive requires uninstalling your current installation of Windows. To do this, you'll need your Windows XP installation disc. You can also use any other version of Windows' installation disc.

This is legal if you own Windows. Set your computer to boot from the disc drive. Once you've inserted the disc, you will need to set your computer to boot from it instead of the hard drive. You can change the boot order from the BIOS, which can be accessed by pressing the setup key as your computer boots. The setup key is usually F2, F10, or Delete. You can change the boot order from the Boot or Boot Order menu. Make sure that the optical drive is set as the first boot device.

See this guide for more details on opening your BIOS and changing the boot order. Start the installer. Once the boot order is set, restart the computer. You will see the message Press any key to boot from CD. Press a key on your keyboard to start the setup program. The setup program may take a few minutes to load. Once the setup program finishes loading, press Enter to get started.

Agree to the license agreement. You will be shown the Windows XP license agreement. Sometimes, there is no way around avoiding catastrophes, but the best action regarding such problems is to remedy them immediately. There are two easy and fast methods to get your hard drive into a workable position after windows are unable to format the hard drive.

Here is the step-by-step guide of both methods to force format any storage device. Disk Management is one of Windows' most trusted utilities, which is used to manage disk-based hardware recognized by the Windows operating system. Here is the solution to format your hard drive, which is refusing to be formatted:.

However, if you find any disk with unallocated space, then you can assign that space and create a new partition as a result. Below are the steps:. The Command prompt service is the backdoor platform in which the entire working of your Windows operating system is based on, and it also helps you to perform complex administrative functions, which are not available in an average environment.

Here is the guide to force format with cmd when Windows cannot format hard drive conventionally. But all can be redeemed if you consider using Recoverit IS to recover every bit of formatted content. The application is a complete answer to all your data recovery problems as it will retrieve all types of formatted and inaccessible content.

Due to its boundless features and user-friendly interface, iSkysoft is gaining popularity among computer users at a rapid pace. Some of the fantastic options that the application provides are as follows:. After launching the program on your computer, please select the formatted drive and click on Start to begin recovering data. The software will scan the drive for a few minutes. ISkysoft also allows you to stop or pause the recovery process for your convenience.