Not CPU related, on reformatting a Gateway.

[Guest]

Whats the best way to reformat this computer? Its a gateway, I put the restoration cd in, and there is no restore to default like my friend said. Anyway, whats the quickest and best way? Someone said to boot in dos, and type c: format /s Is that correct, and then just put the restoration in the drive and type install? Or, someone said there is a way to reinstall windows from windows, and it clears all programs and everything off your computer? Anyone know anything on this? Thanks

 

[Guest]

Well there are a couple of questions to ask first.
Do you have a Startup Disk?
Has any hardware been changed? eg.vidio card,sound card, etc
If you don't have a Startup Disk you can make one by going to the Add/Remove in the Control Panel.
I don't know about the Gateway disk but this is what happens with a Windows cd.
Turn your computer off insert the Startup disk then turn it back on. You'll be asked if you want to boot with or without CD support (choose with) then wait until the A:\ prompt appears then type " format c:" then type "y" when the warning about loosing all info comes up then hit enter.
( don't type the "'s in).
When the format is finished you'll be asked if you want to name the drive, this is optional, then hit enter and return to the A:\ prompt.
Now when you started with the Startup Disk it would have told you that the CD Rom drive letter had been changed to the next letter(eg. if it was d it will now be e) so at the A:\ prompt type in the drive letter(eg. E:\) hit enter and the prompt letter will change to the Rom the type "setup" and hit enter again this will start the installation.
Just follow the prompts from there.

K6-3+450@550 2.0v
Epox MVP3-C2
Sweeeet!

 

[viper2211]

in dos type ---->
C:\>format c: then click yes

I don't know English

 

[Crashman]

From a Win98 boot floppy, at the A:\ prompt type "format c:" (enter).
If booting from the CD, and it comes up with an A:\ prompt, type "D:" (enter), then "cd win98" (enter), then "Format C:" (enter)

Suicide is painless...........

 

[munkey]

if you are worried about possibly having a virus the best way to go about it qould be to run a program called "debug" it id on all win 98 and win ME boot disks. when you get to the a: prompt just type in debug then type everything below that is in "".
A:\>debug (enter)
-"f 200 l1000 0" (enter)
-"a cs:100" (enter)
xxxx:0100"mov ax,301" (enter)
xxxx:0103"mov bx,200" (enter)
xxxx:0106"mov cx,1" (enter)
xxxx:0109"mov dx,80" (enter)
xxxx:010C"int 13" (enter)
xxxx:010E"int 20" (enter)
xxxx:0110 <----blank line (enter)
-"g" (enter)
the computer will say

"program terminated normally"

then just restart the computer. when you gat to the a: prompt again type in "fdisk."
say yes you wish to enable large disk support,
then choose option 1,
and option 1 again.
say yes you wish to use the maximum space availible,
and when it finishes it will tell you to restart so restart.
when your computer is finished restarting when you get to the a: prompt type in "format c:" and then your machine is ready for windows.
the point behind running debug is it will erase the entire HDD including the master boot record where a standard format won't even touch, so if you have a boot sector virus the only way to kill it is with a debug.

or you can go here for the debug scripts
"http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=TT1011054"

and here for the fdisk commands
"http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=FA1011782"
this should solve your problems

i know they are DELL KB articles but they work on all computers
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by munkey on 04/01/01 10:35 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Have you solved this problem? If not, i have detailed instructions directly from gateway that i used on mine awhile back...Joe