i have a system with a fedora operating system on before, but right now anytime i tried to put it on, it is either it goes off when it is about booting or it does not come up at all.

I have decided to format it, but i cannot gain access to the setup menu, please what do i do and what command will i use to enter the setup menu?

Your response will be greatly appreciated!

thanks

i am first timer in this forum

Boot from the installation media for the version of fedora core you have.
If you do not have the media, it can be downloaded from;

http://fedora.redhat.com/

The installation media has everything you need to format the system if desired. Please review the Installation guide, for example the latest version of Fedora core is 6 and the guides are found here;

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/install-guide/fc6/

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux - general and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

--jeremy

If what you are after is to clean off the drive, formatting will not do that, you can format the drive during the installation on another distribution. To clean off a drive, if you have a live CD distribution like Knoppix, put it in the drive and boot the computer, when you get to a command line (terminal), issue this command to clean the entire drive (for 1st or only IDE drive):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda conv=notrunc

If you have a SATA hard drive issue this command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc

These commands will write 0's across the entire drive (clean it up a bit), wait till a command prompt returns before shutting down, this will not be very quick depending on what kind of hardware you have. To install an OS, make sure to set the bios to boot from the disc before hard drive and put the disc in the drive and re-boot to start the installation. During the installation you will get the opportunity to create new partitions and format the partitions.
If you do not have a live CD, you can download a customized Knoppix CD here (approx 700mb):

http://www.efense.com/helix

And use this command with it for a IDE drive:

dcfldd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda conv=notrunc

Or this command for a SATA drive:

dcfldd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc

If you don't want to download 700mb worth, download this "small" utility called bootitng from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ and make a bootitng tools floppy or ISO CD as per the instructions, put the floppy or CD in the drive and boot the computer, click Cancel at the first question, click on OK to enter maintenance, click on partition work icon, highlight the partition of the drive you want to clean, click on Delete, put a check in the "clear boot sector" box and a check in the "wipe" box and click OK twice and wait till the progress bar disappears. It will than show just free space, you can make new partition (s) with it also by highlighting the free space and click create. If all you have is free space, click on Create and make a partition first and choose Linux Native as the format type, this will not do the format as that is done by Linux, but will create a partition so you can wipe the drive as per instructions in the prior sentence.

If you just want to reinstall Fedora, there is no need to format the drive.

Just boot with the installation CD, and select "clean install" when prompted as part of the installation routine. The existing install will be ignored, and you will get a nice clean system.

--Ian