How to reformat my HDD

[user1987]

Hi, Im new to using Linux. I got NimbleX on a CD to run from for my laptop. There is a problem with my internal HDD which was running on Vista, causing me to be unable to boot Vista. I can't boot using the recovery disc either (which worked previously). I was wondering if someone could teach me to reformat the drive to NTFS so I can try to install my Vista back (preferably) or to whatever Linux uses

I have tried something like fdisk /dev/sda
My drive has 2 partitions, one 150Gb, the other 10Gb. Can i keep the 10Gb one and erase the 150Gb one? I read something about pressing d to delete partitions too, but that only gave me an option delete which partition 1-4 (which I dunno y there are so many). command p only gave me those 2. Finally when I pressed w, there was some error.
Thx for any help

[reed9]

According to here you should have gparted installed.

I recommend using that.
GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial

However, it's possible NimbleX doesn't have the necessary software to support NTFS or FAT32 filesystems. (Seems unlikely with FAT32, but possible.)

I don't know how NimbleX does package management, but if gparted doesn't support NTFS or FAT32, the relevant packages are ntfsprogs and dosfstools.

Or, you can use a live distro like Parted Magic to do it.

[user1987]

Oh I have GParted that came with it. But somehow I cant edit the drives. The options like resize are grayed out

[rokytnji]

Is unmount part of selection when you right click on drive? If so pick that option first.

[user1987]

Hmm as far as I can see its unmounted. Cos I get the option to mount it. Would it be easier to reformat if I used some other distro?

[rokytnji]

if I used some other distro?

I keep a Parted Magic Cd like a mechanic keeps a wrench in a toolbox. The New Parted magic comes with Gparted, Super Grub, and a ton of other tools to repair everything from bootloaders to formatting drives.

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[user1987]

Thanks for all the help. I managed to reformat my HDD using fdisk command. Turns out the message that tells me new tables will be written after reboot tells me I really have to reboot. I cant like shut down and on it myself. I had to type reboot in the console

[chujyajra]

I accept with information:There is a problem with my internal HDD which was running on Vista, causing me to be unable to boot Vista.