is it possible to format your hard drive & reinstall windows from DOS?

[Accipiter22]

I have windows XP pro already installed on my computer. I need to format the HD and then reinstall windows XP. The problem is that right now I have so many conflicts and problems with the drivers and such that when I put the XP disk in and boot from it I get some weird errors. I think I need to format FIRST then install windows XP, is this possible?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm not sure I'm understanding your problem. You CAN format from your XP disk.

 

[montag451]

I would check your RAM first if you are getting lots of errors - like memtest for your RAM etc.
What psu do you have?
Could you try disconnecting all non essential hardware to see if you still get errors -
disconnect - all EXCESS drives/optical and hdd.
take out all pci cards
get into BIOS and disable all onboard peripherals.
etc etc.
you get the gist.

 

[Nothinman]

The problem is that right now I have so many conflicts and problems with the drivers and such that when I put the XP disk in and boot from it I get some weird errors.

The two aren't related, if you're having problems when you boot off the CD then you have bigger problems than whatever's wrong with your current installation.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> The problem is that right now I have so many conflicts and problems with the drivers and such that when I put the XP disk in and boot from it I get some weird errors. </end quote></div>

The two aren't related, if you're having problems when you boot off the CD then you have bigger problems than whatever's wrong with your current installation.

Agreed. Problems during Windows setup are either media or hardware related.

 

[Bluefront]

To answer the OP.....yes you can. But it takes a special driver called "smart drive", I think that's it. You can find this file in a W98 installation, maybe other places. It just needs to be installed from a DOS prompt. Without it, your install may fail or take 4x as long.

I've done it a few times when there was no optical drive available.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
To answer the OP.....yes you can. But it takes a special driver called "smart drive", I think that's it. You can find this file in a W98 installation, maybe other places. It just needs to be installed from a DOS prompt. Without it, your install may fail or take 4x as long.

I've done it a few times when there was no optical drive available.

The OP was already answered!
When booting from the XP CD, the installed OS is out of the picture already.

Edit:
I see that the information you have provided could be helpful if the optical drive is the problem and the installation CD is already copied to the hard drive or could be copied through a network.

The problem is that if he has a hardware problem other than the optical drive, it could still cause problems when he attempts to install your way too?

 

[Nothinman]

To answer the OP.....yes you can. But it takes a special driver called "smart drive", I think that's it. You can find this file in a W98 installation, maybe other places. It just needs to be installed from a DOS prompt. Without it, your install may fail or take 4x as long.

I've done it a few times when there was no optical drive available.

Are you sure it still works? I think it did with NT4 and maybe Win2K but I've never tried it with XP or Vista.

 

[Accipiter22]

as you can see from my 'xp installation disaster' thread..things didn't turn out so well

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
as you can see from my 'xp installation disaster' thread..things didn't turn out so well

Is your hardware stable?
Have you run Prime or Orthos for a few hours without errors?
Have you run memtest for a few hours with no errors?
Is your XP CD healthy or does it have scratches?
Is your optical drive healthy?

Worrying about your OS when your hardware is not stable is like worrying about your windshield wipers when your engine has fallen off!

 

[kanad1]

You can install xp via dos, as Bluefront quoted, using smartdrive. I have done so myself without any problems. But there's just one catch : You are not allowed to format the target partition.

This is because the xp setup from dos runs in two modes: first the dos mode copies files to a drive and then when the pc reboots, the actual setup runs. Thus, as the setup actually runs from HDD, you aren't allowed to format it.

You really need to get your RAM memtested... http://www.memtest.org/