Formatting a Drive

JPA

Apologies in advance for my noob questions.


Basically I need to format my hard drive. I only have one.
I need to use Maxblast 4 which creates a bootable disk for me.

Is this all I need to use or do I need a disk for the mobo drivers?

I have XP Home and a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB SATA.
My mobo is the EPoX EP-9NPA+

Thanks in advance.

angelofdeath

nope once you've formatted the drive and installed xp you can go and download and install the mobo drivers

JPA

So there's no danger of my PC not starting up after formatting or anything like that?

angelofdeath

nope it'll start up, just wont boot into anything till you install windows

JPA

OK, Thank you

vibe666

do you want to back up any data or have you already done this?

you don't need the maxblast software really, but if you want to use it there's no reason why not.

you can however do simple formatting with the windows boot cd, simply by booting up with it in the cd drive (you might need to change your bios settings to make it boot before your hard disk though, consult your motherboard manual for instructions on how to do this if it doesn't work first time, but it's simple enough, if we know who makes your bios, someone here will be able to walk you through the changes if they are needed). you can remove existing partitions and create new ones before installing windows itself.

windows will be able to sort you out with most of your needed drivers, although newer ones may be available on the net.

one thing i will say though, is to make 100% sure you have the drivers for your internet device (network card, usb modem or whatever) as it's the one thing you can't get if you're missing it!

JPA

Cheers I use ethernet so there's no worries there. And I've backed up all my data.