cbcbd
New member
I'll just give you straight up crack, if that's what you want.
Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!
You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!
Now that is like totally illeagal! I'll give you an XP crack if you want.
I guess you didn't notice the wink. He never mentioned that he wanted to preserve an OS. He did say he didn't want to reformat because he doesn't have the install CDs. I read that as meaning he couldn't reformat because he doesn't have the install CDs. FDISK gives him the option of whacking the partition(s). He could then reformat the drive using FORMAT on a Win9x startup disk. It was just an option.
If he wants to preserve the OS, then I agree with the others; there's really no good way to do this...
I'll just give you straight up crack, if that's what you want.
I took what he said to mean that he didn't want to format because he didn't have an OS to install back on it and he wanted to be able to sell it with the OS.
I get it now. I first read it to mean that without the setup CDs, he dind't have a way to reformat. My bad.
I'm going to reformat the hard drive and I should be able to come across a cd. A buddy of mine is now looking for a laptop. The one we're talking about has a cracked screen. I told him if he could get the screen fixed and get a windows install for the right price, it's his. If not I'll scramble to find a windows cd and make a few bucks. Thanks for ALL YOUR HELP guys.
Thanks to you guys, I realize the stupidity of trying to cheat out the extra work of a format and reinstall. I really should have known better.
Incidentally, speaking of Ebay....I brought a pair of bongos to an ISOLDIT store around here. I was in and out in 5 minutes, they do ALL the work. I cant wait for them to put the auction up. Now I'm looking around the house for things to sell!!!!!! This laptop is next if my buddy doesn't want it.
FYI: Yes the intention of my original post was to clean the hard drive without reformatting and installing windows.
Just a heads up on that laptop. It is likely going to cost more than its worth to replace the monitor on it. he could still check, but unless its a really good laptop, you're probably better of just looking for a newer model. You can really pick up some nice laptops for well under $1000.00 these days, unless you're like an intense gamer or something...
M
Good plan. I use WipeDrive software products. Reformatting your hard drive doesn't really do much to remove existing hard drive data.Update: A friend of mine who works on computers gave me a bootable program called Weboot System Erase. I'm currently running a 12 hour "Guttman Method" erase which writes the drive over 36 times. I found my old CD's that came with the laptop so I will be able to re-install windows 98. I found an XP upgrade cd as well, but I think I need to find a crack somewhere for it. .....comments?
Note you will have to download and install a few drivers after you reinstall Windows. Make sure you know what drivers you will need for your telephone modem, Ethernet, sound card, and graphics adapter.