Windows 7 can not get rid of or format..

I have a Sony VAIO laptop with Windows 7 installed and I'm having a bunch of problems.


Everything in device manager is showing to be ok and correctly installed and yet it does not recognise or read any CD discs and does not recognise any USBs bigger than GB.

Disk Manager shows all external media when inserted but nothing shows up in Windows Explorer.


I'm trying to wipe the entire device to install a different operating system but cannot do so unless I can completely format the drive first. How can I format the drive with no third-party software, no USB and no CD drive?

Thank you.

Welcome to the Forum

Boot from a Win 7, 8.x or 10 installation drive.
At the Windows Setup screen, press Shift+F10 simultaneously to open a command line prompt and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the HDD number)
select disk n (replace n by the HDD number obtained with list disk)
clean
exit (to exit diskpart)

The diskpart clean command will delete all partitions on the drive and leave it with one and only one unalloacted space.
Boot from the desired OS installation drive and select the unalloacted space to install.

That's the problem.. I can not boot from any external source it the computer is not recognizing any external bootable source that I created myself.

The only thing it will boot from is an old original copy on Windows XP I found lying around. but once it gets to the install screen it says it can not continue as I there is a newer OS already on the laptop. (Windows 7)

I'm thinking if I can just wipe this Windows 7 somehow I can then instal XP Pro it will then see CD's and USB's and from there upgrade to Windows 10.

I can get into the BIOS but I can not get to a boot menu.

I always thought Windows XP Install disk provided an option to format and wipe a drive and do a clean installation regardless of what was on it.

Apologies for delayed reply guys..

I manage to sort it out. I was able to gradually update the Windows 7 manually one update at a time.. which got me to a stage where the CD drive was recognised. Also an 'upgrade to Windows 10' suddenly appeared and I was able to bounce straight to a clean and full Win 10 installation.

Now the USB and DVD drive are all working. Problem. solved.

Thanks for all the replies.