formatt old hard drive

[realtor388]

Well guys, now that the new computer is done I want to reformatt the old computer to get all the info on it off, then give it to our son to use. It is an HP with window me. It tells me to just stick the disk in and reboot and it will walk me thru it. This doe not work. Do I have to go into bios and set the boot sequence to cd or what? If so how do I get into bios on an HP pushing f8 on boot does not work. Any help would be appreaciated.

[EzyStvy]

Do I have to go into bios and set the boot sequence to cd or what?

Yep.

Try some of these key combinations on startup;
Press del during boot= (AMI, Award).
Press Esc during boot= Toshiba.
Press F1 during boot= (Toshiba; Phoenix; Late model PS/1 Value Point and 330s).
Press F2 during boot = (NEC).
Press F10 when square in top RH corner of screen= (Compaq).
Press Ins during boot=IBM PS/2 with reference partition.
Shift Ctrl Alt + Num Pad del= - Olivetti PC Pro.
Ctrl Alt ? =some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90.
Ctrl-Esc = Misc Puters
Ctrl Ins= some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen.
Press reset twice= some Dells.
Ctrl Alt Enter= Dell.
Ctrl Alt Esc=AST Advantage, Award, Tandon.
Ctrl Alt + =Misc Puters
Ctrl Alt S= Phoenix.
Ctrl Alt Ins= (Zenith, Phoenix)
Ctrl S =(Phoenix).

[realtor388]

I will try some of those. I have already tried a couple of them , so we will see which works.
Thanks

[RayH]

Try F1

[minsonngo]

You can also use a Windows 95, 98, or ME startup diskette containing FDISK and FORMAT to repartition and reformat the hard drive.

[ROYP123]

Some of those old HPs need the restore disk, PLUS a floppy to be used at the same time to format and restore. You can probably format and restore by looking at the files on the restore disk while in the cd rom and chosing " startup" or " restore "

[fiend]

I think I used something from http://www.bootdisk.com/