How to reformat a laptop?

[lotust]

do I do anything different that on a home PC? Its a toshiba 650CT . Its has Windows PLUS on it now. But it has all kinds of passwords and settings on it. I think a fresh install is in order.

 

[urbantechie]

Nope. Just make sure you know what kind of HW you have in it and all that good stuff.

 

[lotust]

I know this sounds stupid but I forgot how to do a format. Can someone help my Dumb @ss ? What do I do at the DOS prompt?

 

[azeker1]

format c:

 

[medic]

Or format c: /q (from the A: prompt for a Quick format)

 

[lotust]

do you guys know where I can find some info on this? I have a laptop with No floppy. So I know I will need that MSCDEX file. But I guess I should burn that on a CD rom. $hit I really confused. I know after I format I will need to have a floppy to load the MSCDEX file so tht the CD rom can be recignized by windows.


Please help guys thanks I know you will pull threw for me. there has to be a work around for not having a floppy.

 

[azeker1]

Well, the best work around for not having a floppy is to boot from a Windows CD. DOes your BIOS allow this option?

 

[lotust]

dude thats a good answer . BUt how do I get in the bios ..lol I tryed F10 F8 DEL what the hell is it on a laptop? I was tapping/holding what do I do? Jeezzz dam lappy.

what else do I use besides thoes 3 keys?

 

[PowerJoe]

No BIOS, no diskette, no DOS CDROM driver, minimal DOS commands, no backing up data, here's how

-PJ

 

[pdo]

Wow that's a good tip PowerJoe. Now can I do that with W2K too.

 

[JaiKnight]

Do you have a recovery CD for the system? If you do it should be a bootable CD that you can use to install whatever version of Windows came with the system.

 

[lotust]

PowerJoes the man. thanks Joe good deal. I think I have the room on the drive to do this.

 

[steverama]

Hmph! Make sure you either know all the hardware that is in your laptop or make sure you have all the disks or CD's that came with the laptop. Setting up a laptop is a little different than doing so for a desktop. Just make sure You have all the setup disks or CD's that came with the laptop in order to properly install all the drivers. It's not easy to just hop on the net and download drivers for hardware you're not sure of.