wiping an old Win NT laptop

[Hayden_Horn]

What's the best way to do this if, say, you don't know the password? I want to wipe the HD and install xp on there.

 

[wherzwaldo]

If you don't care about the data, just pop the XP CD in and reboot the computer. You're given the option to boot from the CD, where you can then reformat the partition and install XP.

If you DO care about the data, you can probably get to a command prompt somehow before NT loads. I've never used NT though, so if it's different from hitting F8, someone else might now.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

well ****. all i have sitting around is me. that doesn't auto boot.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

if it helps, this is an old office laptop. trying to get around the protocals in order to wipe the hd.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

heh-heh. found a cool "boot and nuke" program.

 

[mojo mofo]

I'm in the same predicament as you. What's the name of that program and did it work?

 

[TexasOwnzYou]

if it doesnt boot into cd, boot into floppy.

m$ has windows xp boot disks (floppy disks) that you can download and it will start the installation.

after it has the cdrom drivers from floppy, it asks u to pop in the cd.

there are 8 or so boot disks and u'll need all of them. they're @ the MS site.

 

[EEE]

if by password, you mean the os (winnt) then boot from floppy with a win98 or dos bootdisk, then fdisk, delete partition, then install xp. if the password is for the hardware, your'e out of luck. you can get any boot disk imaginable here, as well as detailed instructions for loading variouis os's. good luck.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

well, the problem was that this ***** doesn't have a floppy drive, so you have to boot from CD. No problem, but whatever I downloaded from MS didn't work right. So i used DBAN. Dsomebody's boot and nuke. now i have a clean hard drive. I just gotta use the boot disks to install the me program. i ahte me, but it's all i got, and the chick who is using this lappie wants the internet, msoffice and that's it. so me should be fine.

 

[wherzwaldo]

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[Ignatius]

I would go to Half-Price books or look on EBay for a copy of Win98SE before I'd curse any PC with Me...

 

[Hayden_Horn]

haha - found an old xp copy laying around. I had installed Me. Good god i forgot how much that OS sucks.