Having Problems Reformating

Ok im trying to reformat my old computer and the only 2 ways i know how are not working. When I put the Windows CD in the computer and reboot and try to delete the partition it says it has temporary setup files that are required for installation and cannot delete. When I reboot in command prompt and do format c: and hit yes it says something about the volume being used about something else and asks if you want to unmount the volume and when I type y then it says it could not do that. I cant figure this out. If you know why this is happening or know a better way of reformating my hard drive please let me know quick.

Thanks,
Blake

 

I'd use a floppy as a boot disk.

You can get one here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

 

yeah a winxp bootdisk should work

also if your copy is bootable go into your BIOS and change the cdrom as your first boot device. before windows loads you should have the option to boot from disk by pressing any key. if this works then you should get to the screen to format the harddrive and start installing windows.

 

try a copy of partition magic by powerquest if you can get one

 

The only problem is my floppy drive dosnt work on the old computer. Could i just put it on a cd rom?

 

partition magic 8 comes as a bootable CD which boots the system with DR-Dos then runs the program

 

Alright ill try downloading that tonight after im done watching a lacrosse game.

 

or just google search for a WIN98SE cd boot disk, burn it,and then use FDISK from the dos prompt to wipe the partition table then windows should install onto it like it was a new drive, a further note, i had a machine that would not format HDD's with windows install and it turned out to be incompatibilty with the CD-ROM drive, when i booted from my DVD drive it worked perfect