The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    How to reformat?

    Discussion in 'HP' started by aLexis, Jul 2, 2005.

  1. aLexis

    aLexis Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have a Compaq Presario X1000 and I don't know what my friend did to it but it's not working properly now. I tried reformating it the normal way you format a desktop computer but I didn't work. And also - Originally it is running using Windows XP Home Edition, it is possible to reformat in XP Pro edition or somehwo change te system to running XP Pro? Please help me!
     
    aLexis, Jul 2, 2005
    #1
  2. mtrivs

    mtrivs Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    40
    Messages:
    458
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    1st of all, what way did you try to reformat at first? Before you format, you should back-up all needed files and then do a repair install of windows ( http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm ). The way i would format is boot from your windows CD and then choose the partition you want to format, then format it using the NTFS file system. After that you will be able to reinstall windows. You can go from XP home to XP Pro, but you will need to buy a copy of XP Pro, you can't install XP Pro, with a XP Home CD.
     
    mtrivs, Jul 2, 2005
    #2
  3. aLexis

    aLexis Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have tried that and it says that the laptop version is more new and that I have to boot the pc with the CD, but that didn't work, it just came up to the usual log in screen, I tried using command prompt and its says

    format cannot run because the volume is in use by nother process. format may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. would you like to force a dismount on this volume? <y/n>

    i typed 'y'
    then it said "cannot lock the drive. the volume is still in use."

    its been almost 4 hourssss of failure............ help greatly appreciated!
     
    aLexis, Jul 3, 2005
    #3
  4. aLexis

    aLexis Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    OMG dear lord! FINALLY! After hours of constant stuggle and failures it is finally reformatting!!! I tried reformatting using XP PRO but it didn't work and my boyfriend just bought over XP Home Edition and it WORKS!! And it took less than a minute!!! Now it's formatting... ahhhhh~ heaven... :D :D
     
    aLexis, Jul 3, 2005
    #4
  5. Venombite

    Venombite Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    126
    Messages:
    3,532
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Alexis,

    You weren't trying to format while in the OS were you? You can't do that. You need to boot off the XP Pro CD and perform the same steps you would if you were installing the OS for the 1st time. It'll give you an option to format the HDD or leave current OS intact, of course you select the format to NTFS. It'll go through the paces and then it'll wipe the HDD and start to install XP Pro.

    The error message you got happens when you're in a Command Prompt, not a DOS prompt. They generally look the same, but the Command Prompt is just an emulator that runs in the OS to give you similar functionality as DOS, but at a DOS prompt or DOS mode, you actually boot off a Windows 98, Windows ME boot disk at poweron which by-passes the Windows XP OS.

    -Vb-
     
    Venombite, Jul 4, 2005
    #5