[Ham-Computers] Help!

[Jim Hill]

You are probably thinking about:

Make a boot floppy (assuming you have a floppy drive)

Put the floppy in the drive and restart the computer

At the A:\prompt, type FDISK and Enter.  When you are asked for large 
disk support, enter yes.  You can change partitions, if desired.

Type format C:

I think the above applied to all PC type computers, but there is much 
more.  You may not have a floppy drive.  FDISK and format doesn't 
work with the large hard drives many of us have.  There's plenty of 
preparation that must be done before starting, like finding all the 
software you will reinstall and the necessary installation keys, 
finding your drivers (did you keep the Dell disk that has this data 
plus the audio card disk if you have an audio card?), saving all your 
documents, etc somewhere else. It takes me hours to reformat and 
reinstall everything.  Programs like Partition Magic make the job 
much easier.  I can look up my notes if that will help.

Dell has a super resource - their forums.  I only buy Dell computers 
for that reason.  Jot down your service tag number and bring up
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/    Go to hard drives, 
search for format, reformat, or whatever seems right.  The have a 
good search engine.  If necessary, post a question.  I'm sure Dell 
has knowledge base articles on reformatting hard drives.

If your old drive is still operational, I suggest starting with a 
different drive.  You can always return to the old drive to check out 
or save something you forgot about or continue to use it while 
checking DriverGuide for that missing driver.  Dell has a driver area 
in their support documents, but my experience indicates some may be 
missing, particularly audio card drivers.  That's another time the 
forums will help.

Linux has it's pluses, but remember that there's a steep learning 
curve.  It will be much easier to learn how to reformat your drive. 
If you go the Linux way, I suggest Ubuntu.  It's new-user friendly 
and there is a book available, Beginning Ubuntu Linux by Kier 
Thomas.  It and the Ubuntu forums will get you started.  Relying only 
on forums was much slower for me.  However, I suspect Dale and I both 
have good suggestions, like Honda vs Toyota.

Good Luck
Jim






At 10:55 AM 8/15/2008, you wrote:
>Hi Fellows,
>
>Is there a way I can reformat the hard drive on my Dell Dimension 4100
>without going thru that diabolical torture of having to deal with someone
>who does not speak english plainly enough to understand? Been thru
>it once years ago - don't want to endure that again! Never Dell again!
>I am thoroughly disgusted with Dell! Couldn't be more  disgusted!
>
>There is no Reformat command available in this computer - the reformat\
>has to be talked thru by a dell employee.
>
>Is there a way to over-write what's in this computer with another
>operating system? Been considering trying Linux.
>If I cannot find a solution, it looks like I will have to junk this machine!
>Any help appreciated. Take care,
>
>Ken   N5CM
>
>
>
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