M
marthamydear
Guest
I think I screwed something up with my partitioning. The long-and-short of it is that I believe I still have my old Windows XP bloating one of my partitions and it results in my being nagged by my computer that I am running out of hard drive space.
So I've lost WIndows XP and thank goodness I backed up everything I wanted to save. This is a flea market bargain laptop so, of course, I have no restore CD HOWEVER I have downloaded all the drivers and burned them to CD. I have also burned a Linux Mint install CD.
So, am I ready to format?
Back in the days of DOS (ah yes, DOS...WONDERFUL DOS!) I seem to recall formatting a hard drive with the command format c:
It would then ask if I was sure I wanted to and warn me that I was about to lose everything. To which I would reply, YES.
Since my partitions are goofed up and I've really got nothing to lose, how do I format in LINUX? Or do I just hit the "F12" key while my computer is booting up and select FORMAT from there?
Will this also take care of reformatting my partitions as well as the rest of my hard drive or do I need to append something like a slash and a letter (it seems like I remember in DOS the command was something like FORMAT C: /S but its been a lot of years and I might have forgotten the details.
Once I have reformatted my hard drive then (and I have already selected the boot to look at my CD drive first) is it just a matter of starting my computer up with the LINUX disk and then downloading the drivers?
The drivers that I got off the HP website are all "EXE" files that open to many sub-folders...and it is my understanding that "EXE" is a Windows vernacular...so when I try to load my drivers will the "EXE" files even open? Or should I first "unpack" them and load them as batch files without initiating the "EXE" file first?
I don't care to have Windows on my computer and, even if I did, I don't have a copy of it to load first then do a dual boot or replacement out of LINUX. So I am hoping someone may be kind enough to help me through the steps to reformat my hard drive, freshly install LINUX and deal with the drivers that are all packed in EXE files. (Hewlett Packard Compaq nc6220 laptop).
Thanks for any and all HHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP !
So I've lost WIndows XP and thank goodness I backed up everything I wanted to save. This is a flea market bargain laptop so, of course, I have no restore CD HOWEVER I have downloaded all the drivers and burned them to CD. I have also burned a Linux Mint install CD.
So, am I ready to format?
Back in the days of DOS (ah yes, DOS...WONDERFUL DOS!) I seem to recall formatting a hard drive with the command format c:
It would then ask if I was sure I wanted to and warn me that I was about to lose everything. To which I would reply, YES.
Since my partitions are goofed up and I've really got nothing to lose, how do I format in LINUX? Or do I just hit the "F12" key while my computer is booting up and select FORMAT from there?
Will this also take care of reformatting my partitions as well as the rest of my hard drive or do I need to append something like a slash and a letter (it seems like I remember in DOS the command was something like FORMAT C: /S but its been a lot of years and I might have forgotten the details.
Once I have reformatted my hard drive then (and I have already selected the boot to look at my CD drive first) is it just a matter of starting my computer up with the LINUX disk and then downloading the drivers?
The drivers that I got off the HP website are all "EXE" files that open to many sub-folders...and it is my understanding that "EXE" is a Windows vernacular...so when I try to load my drivers will the "EXE" files even open? Or should I first "unpack" them and load them as batch files without initiating the "EXE" file first?
I don't care to have Windows on my computer and, even if I did, I don't have a copy of it to load first then do a dual boot or replacement out of LINUX. So I am hoping someone may be kind enough to help me through the steps to reformat my hard drive, freshly install LINUX and deal with the drivers that are all packed in EXE files. (Hewlett Packard Compaq nc6220 laptop).
Thanks for any and all HHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP !