Reformatting Your Removable Hard Drive

Please read the disclaimer at the end of this page, before preforming this procedure.

PLEASE NOTE: The following applies ONLY to those that have one of our Dual Removable Hard Drive computer systems. If you do not have one of our Dual-Drive systems DO NOT TRY THE FOLLOWING. Instead see: Starting Over

CAUTION
Formatting, or re-formatting, a hard drive permanently and irrecoverably destroys ALL data and programs on the drive!
Be absolutely sure you know which drive you are re-formatting. DO NOT re-format your only working drive!

If you have any questions or doubts about this procedure, Contact Us before you do any of the following:

We recommend you print this page, so you can more easily follow the instructions



1. Insure you have an "Emergency Boot" floppy disk available. If you don't you can make one from the following steps:


Double click the My Computer icon.
Double click the Control Panel icon.
Double click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
Select the Startup Disk tab, & follow the instructions.

2. Power-down the computer and remove both hard drives.
3. Insert the H/D to be formatted in the top slot. Leave the bottom slot empty.

4. Insert the boot floppy in the drive. Insure that the CMOS setup is set to boot from the A: drive first. ( See the CMOS side-bar )

5. When the computer boots from the floppy disk you should be at the A: prompt

If you are reformatting the #1 drive, type the following:
FORMAT C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_1 and press "Enter"

If you are reformatting the #2 drive, type the following:
FORMAT C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_2 and press "Enter"


If you are reformatting the #3 drive, type the following:
FORMAT C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_3 and press "Enter"


If you are reformatting the primary game drive, type:
FORMAT C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_6 and press "Enter"


If you are reformatting the secondary game drive, type:
FORMAT C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_7 and press "Enter"


Spaces are Important: There must be ONE space between each command letter, as shown above.

Remember: They are FORWARD-SLASHES not back-slashes. (Forward-slashes are a shifted question mark.

During the end of the formatting process, you may see a "Logging errors" message, ignore it.

6. After the format is completed, remove the floppy disk and reboot the computer. It should boot to a C: DOS prompt.

7. Power down the computer and remove the H/D and install it in the secondary slot. Re-install the primary H/D in the top slot.

8. Power-up the computer, reset CMOS, as in step 4 above, for a boot sequence of C: first then A:

If you have the number 2 or 3 drive in the upper slot, you will see a message that you are booting from the wrong drive. This is normal, press the space bar to continue booting.

9. After your computer reboots to Windows 95/98, do a backup from Drive 1 to Drive 2. By double clicking the "Utilities" icon, then double clicking on the Backup icon.

If the number 1 drive is the drive you just re-formatted, and you have it now in the bottom slot, you will see some warning messages, press the Y key between each message.


10. After the backup is complete, and if the top drive is NOT the number 1 drive, shut down the computer in the normal way and move the drives to the proper order (1 on top, 2 on the bottom).