Computer Total Crash

[Angus]

My children got into my Laptop without my consent and totally crashed it. I have a Recovery disc made thru Nortons. I am trying to format my disc and start from scratch. I can get to the c: command prompt OK. I have typed Format and it asks for volume label. I have typed Label and it states "not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"
All I want to do is start with a clean disc. Your assistance would be appreciated.
Grant

[Geek-9pm]

Welcome!
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You said:

I have a Recovery disc made thru Nortons

That is a disc you prepared using the Norton program, -right?
That disc should do it all for you.

Apparently you have another computer. Look over the Norton documentation. The Norton recovery should bring lour laptop back to the state when you created the Norton disc.

[patio]

BTW you cannot format C: from within Windows...this is by design.

The restore will wipe everything out anyways in the process.

[Angus]

I can not get to Windows. The Nortons disc won't work either. I can get to C:> Format but asks for disc Label. It states that this is not an internal or external command, program or batch. I will be in Sai Gon for a few days so hopefully will have a reply then. Thanks Patio and Geek-9pm

In anticipation,
Grant

[Raptor]

Use the recovery disks that you have made when you first turned on the laptop.

[Darthgumby]

Most laptops these days come with the recovery built right into the hard drive in its own partition.  While this is good for most situations, it makes it nearly impossible to run if you can't get to these recovery files.  What I did for someone with a similar issue in the past was to go to the manufacturer's website and request a copy of the original installation discs.

It will probably cost about $20, but they should be what you need to reset everything back to factory settings when you first bought the computer.  You will also need to change the BIOS to boot to the CD instead of the hard drive, but the directions that come with the discs will remind you to do so.  It's also nice to have these discs around in case you need them for your laptop in the future.  Good luck.