Format Your Computer with a USB drive
By Acquilles
Format your Computer with a USB Flash Drive
Are you experiencing problems formatting your computer or laptop because of a damaged CD ROM drive? Well the solution is very easy and feasible. All you require is a USB Flash drive and a computer with a working CD ROM drive. There are some tools you will require and I will tell you about them very soon. What we will do is format your system with an external USB drive instead of a CD ROM drive. There are also now available netbooks or mini notebooks that do not come already attached with a cd rom drive. This small tutorial will help you to install XP in them as well.
There are various steps to the above procedure and you must follow each step as I mention it here. Compliance with the following steps will lead you to a successful format of your hard drive. But before we begin download and unzip the following file.
BOOTSECT and USB_Prep8
- Download and unzip the given file on a computer that has a working cd rom. You will see two folders one with the name of BOOTSECT and the other USB_Prep8.
- Go to the Usb_prep8 folder and open the file USB_Prep8.cmd file. This will bring up a command prompt window.
- The window will ask you to press any key and when you do so a new USB_Prep8 window will open. Remember do not close the command prompt window now.
- Now set the path of your USB drive in the USB_Prep8 window and begin formatting your pen drive. DO NOT close any of the windows open.
- Now open a new command prompt window,
- Now navigate to the bootsect folder in this window.
- once you reach the bootsect folder type “bootsect.exe /nt52 g:” where g is the letter attached to your USB flash drive.
- Once you do this you will see a message that bootcode was updated. Now you can close this command prompt window but not the other one as yet.
- now go the PeToUSb window and close it. Again do not close close the USB_prep8 command prompt window.
- After you have closed this window you should see a list of 8 options in the command prompt window.
- Select the first option and enter the location of your windows installation disc.
- The second option will ask you to enter a drive letter. Assign random letter to this option as this will be a virtual drive. Do not assign a letter that is already attached to a drive on your computer.
- select option 3 and enter the drive letter for your flash drive.
- select 4 and follow the instructions as they build up on your computer screen. Rest is easy following.
After the process completes (15-20) minutes you will have a USB drive that will be similar in action to a windows installation disc. Now we begin the procedure for installing XP on your netbook or your computer with the damaged cd rom drive. Remember your computer must be able to boot from the usb drive mode. Once you have set your computer to boot from USB follow the given steps:
- Insert the uSB drive you have prepared just now into any of the USB ports on your computer.
- Let your computer boot from the USB drive
- From the two options select option 2 and let start the text based installation.
- Remember delete all the partitions on your hard drive lest it will result in hal.dll or other issues.
- Now let the format go on and once setup restarts boot again from the USB drive and now chose the GUI option to boot.
- Again after the installation completes you may face problems while booting from the hard disk. If you face a problem, boot again from the USB Drive and GUI option. Now when XP boots type msconfig in run and go to boot.ini. Check all boot baths may solve your problem. If it does not get solved, try changing the boot path in your boot.ini file into something like this:‘multi(o)disk(0)rdisk(o)partition(1)\Windows=”Windows XP Pro” /fastdetect’.
I hope you understand my post clearly, follow the steps and you will see that it is as easy a procedure as a windows installation disc. Enjoy formatting!!!
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Comments
Nice for this information I can used this in the near future..
I have never try this before but am sure this is useful ...
YEah I think it is really great to have people showing us methods to format our computers..thanks alot!
Thanks! This information was useful :)
Yes, I definitely learned from this as well. I didn't know you could do that with a USB drive, so thanks!
thanks its working
I Have 1 Question How To Open a New Prompt Window after we set the path of USB drive in the USB_Prep8 window can u explain this???
thnaks for you cooperation
thanks buddy ..your help was indeed useful
thanks buddy ..your help was indeed useful
I'll try this one,, hope it would work,, thanks a lot
i have a question about the option 3 when i to put the letter of the drive it says "D: is not a valid drive" while my flash drive is letter d. how could this be.? please post some solution ASAP i need this one really bad.. thanks.
thanx for the post,it really gave me a clear idea about how to go about formatting my pc via USB. i have a question though, when i opened the cmd window i nearly jumped 10 steps and came to step number 11 where it says having 8 options.how so,could u please help?
i never formate computer with pendrive i will try this step
Please support that method with video to guide who ever want to use that. thank you so muc!!!
I am very herby towards this method to format
with the usb,before it I always used the cd rom.
But now i can format the pc in my village.
Thanks for this information, this works for me.
I had used the above process but after selecting the option --" format using TXT... blah blah.." it is not showing the harddrives... just showing the pendrive.. please help..
do you have another way to format a computer using usb drives? if you have can you post it in your site. thanks.
what is boot sector window
the problem is that my laptop des not boot from usb drive
thanx mate...
format
my usb drive can not be detected
mga tanga
WinToFlash can be used to create the usb rather than following all the instructions from the top half
is it ok to use a 300Gb external hardisk? will it work if there are other files in it for this kind of method??
i will try this thing on my leppi & i want like to give u thnx
Nice men tnx for the post..!! i never try this but i think its gonna work..
andikeni na kiswahili
Oh... Everyone seems experts here..!! I am very new to this site and this is my first post. you may find my question very stupid but i expect you to answer please...!!
I don't have basic knowledge of computers and its softwares. But my laptop is causing me trouble a lot these days. I have been using Windows 7 Ultimate since one year. I just want to know the steps to format my laptop and install the Windows 7 Ultimate again. As i told you earlier i don't have any knowledge of computers, i kindly request you to direct me with details.
Waiting for your reply. Thank You!!
adadad
My computer system have a virus an can not read CD rom. What can i do? Please.
Pen drive and usb are same ?? or pen drive is a software?
did you notice that the link does not work any more... where can I find BOOTSECT and USB_Prep8... to try this?
sad i cant download the software for megaupload block up :( plz upload by medafire or sm thing else :(
any idea from where can i dowload now the file that is bloocked from CIA ?
i stil trying to get it....
the web site you gave us does not work.
GAGO
wat are the steps on how to format computer using usb flash drives
IT,S COOL. FINALLY I HAVE KNOWN TO FORMAT COMPUTER
BY USB
HAHA i forgot mega upload was closed!! XD
Can i use 2 USB to format my computer? cause i only have 2(4gb)usb :) and i don't have enough money to buy an 8 gb!
That's a fantastic hub. Thank you so much.
Ron from http://www.intervalstraining.net
thanks alot
its working yaar
very easy this pross
site is showing seezed by fbi
thanks a lot buddy..! it's very usefull........!
jUST PLEASE TELL MOW TO Sart sending a letter in plain English. Because after al I am an educated Scot from Aberdeen Scotland.
Jane Ylod 2 years ago
I have never try to format my computer using usb. and I never wanted to try. But If have no choice like a laptop that it's cd room is not working anymore maybe I can used this method..