Formatting a Hard Disk

You cannot format a hard disk by using Windows 95 Setup. The hard disk must be formatted before you can run Windows 95 Setup. However, if Windows 95 is already installed, you might need to reformat the hard disk, as described in the following procedure.

Note

If the disk was compressed by using DriveSpace, you must use the Format option in DriveSpace to format the compressed drive.

To format a hard disk drive

• In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive icon for that disk, and then click Format.

  You cannot use this method on a hard disk containing open files, including the drive where Windows 95 resides.

To format a hard disk by using the Windows 95 startup disk

1. Make sure a startup disk is in drive A. Then, at the command prompt, type the following:

   format drive_letter:

   For drive_letter, type the letter of the drive you want to format.

   If you are formatting drive C, copy system files to the hard disk by typing the following at the command prompt:

   format c: /s

   When the warning message appears, proceed with formatting by pressing Y. Then press ENTER.

2. When formatting is complete, type a volume label (if you want one), and then press ENTER.
3. If you want to format other drives, repeat steps 1 and 2.
4. Remove the floppy disks from all floppy disk drives, and restart the computer by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL.