hope you're doing fine, this is my problem.
i have a laptop with multiboot operating system (win 2000
pro and win 98. i wanted to make a clean install for win
xp pro with sp1 built in. i meant a clean install and not
an upgrade as i am not in need for the multiboot
facility. the process of the clean installation goes on
and on up to the end. when rebooting my computer i
discovered that the previous OS in addition to the win xp
still exist while they were supposed to be cleaned out. i
tried to format the harddisc using the cd rom. i
couldn't. i am unable to use fdisk as the file system is
NTFS. how can i bring my computer to do this. kindly give
me tips and thanks for your cooperation in advance.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"geora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message:
news:09ea01c3fd81$446a94f0$(E-Mail Removed)...

| hope you're doing fine, this is my problem.
| i have a laptop with multiboot operating system (win 2000
| pro and win 98. i wanted to make a clean install for win
| xp pro with sp1 built in. i meant a clean install and not
| an upgrade as i am not in need for the multiboot
| facility. the process of the clean installation goes on
| and on up to the end. when rebooting my computer i
| discovered that the previous OS in addition to the win xp
| still exist while they were supposed to be cleaned out. i
| tried to format the harddisc using the cd rom. i
| couldn't. i am unable to use fdisk as the file system is
| NTFS. how can i bring my computer to do this. kindly give
| me tips and thanks for your cooperation in advance.

Are you sure the old installations are still there?
Because it could be the XP installation only saved the
boot.ini entry for the other two OS's. If you can't boot
into the other operating systems but is shows up as an
option then all you need to do is edit your boot.ini. The
boot.ini is a hidden file on your boot drive, probably
the 'c:\'drive. It will have a line that looks like this:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

There will also be an additional line for each additional
operating system. You can delete both of these two other
lines, just make sure you make a backup copy before you
make any changes.
Another less intrusive way to accomplish basically the
same thing is to boot into the XP system, right click
on 'My Computer' and select properties. Click
on 'Advanced', click 'Settings' in the Startup area. Make
sure the default operating system is set to XP and uncheck
the first check box.
If you find that the other two OS's are in fact still
loaded but on separate partitions you can format them by
right clicking on 'My Computer' select 'Manage',
select 'Disk Management', Right click on the partition
with the OS you want to format. One of your options will
be 'Format Partition'.


>-----Original Message-----
>hope you're doing fine, this is my problem.
>i have a laptop with multiboot operating system (win 2000
>pro and win 98. i wanted to make a clean install for win
>xp pro with sp1 built in. i meant a clean install and not
>an upgrade as i am not in need for the multiboot
>facility. the process of the clean installation goes on
>and on up to the end. when rebooting my computer i
>discovered that the previous OS in addition to the win xp
>still exist while they were supposed to be cleaned out. i
>tried to format the harddisc using the cd rom. i
>couldn't. i am unable to use fdisk as the file system is
>NTFS. how can i bring my computer to do this. kindly give
>me tips and thanks for your cooperation in advance.
>
>.
>

hello carey,
my laptop is dockable. it was docked when i insert the cd
rom, i changed the bios settings and assigned the cd rom
to be the first boot. it did not work. the only way was
to wait until windows is fully loaded and launch the
installation setup. ( the cd drive is built in the
docking station and not the laptop. it is obvious that i
can not disconnect the docking station.
even though, the win setup did not give me the chance
delete the partition because of the temp. setup files are
loaded on this partition that happen to be the only
partition. it is actually the c:\ (just one partition)

>-----Original Message-----
>The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools
necessary
>to partition and format your drive. Follow this
procedure and allow
>Windows XP to partition and format your drive:
>
>NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all
your peripheral hardware
> devices, except the monitor, mouse and
keyboard, before installing XP.
>
>NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed,
physically disconnect the
> EIDE and power cable to it before
proceeding, otherwise your main
> hard drive may not be assigned the
customary C: drive letter.
> After installing Windows XP, you may then
reconnect it.
>
>1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first
bootable device".
>
> ===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
> ===>
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
>
>2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and
reboot your computer.
>3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow
the instructions.
>4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to
delete all the existing
> Windows partitions, then create a new partition,
then format the primary
> partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to
install Windows XP.
>
>5. Clean Install Windows XP
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>
> [Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]
>
>6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn
on XP's Firewall.
> ==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
>
>7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows
Update website
> and download the available "Critical Updates".
>
>8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and
visit the support website
> of the manufacturer of the computer to download
and install any
> available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as
video adapter
> and audio drivers.
>
>9. If you happen to run into any installation
difficulties, use the following resources:
>
> How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During
Installation
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx
scid=kb;EN-US;310064
>
> Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm
>
> [Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]
>
>--
>Carey Frisch
>Microsoft MVP
>Windows XP - Shell/User
>
>Be Smart! Protect your PC!
>http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
>
>"geora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message:
> news:09ea01c3fd81$446a94f0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>| hope you're doing fine, this is my problem.
>| i have a laptop with multiboot operating system (win
2000
>| pro and win 98. i wanted to make a clean install for
win
>| xp pro with sp1 built in. i meant a clean install and
not
>| an upgrade as i am not in need for the multiboot
>| facility. the process of the clean installation goes
on
>| and on up to the end. when rebooting my computer i
>| discovered that the previous OS in addition to the win
xp
>| still exist while they were supposed to be cleaned
out. i
>| tried to format the harddisc using the cd rom. i
>| couldn't. i am unable to use fdisk as the file system
is
>| NTFS. how can i bring my computer to do this. kindly
give
>| me tips and thanks for your cooperation in advance.
>
>.
>

hi,
the previous OS are still there. or at least, if you
want, many leftover files are still there. the free space
on harddisc is getting smaller in size after installing
win xp. let me tell you here that installation of win xp
did go smoothly with no errors.
it should be a way to do this. i do not mind formating my
computer and loosing the exsisting data. i have a backup
for the important files.
the question is how to make a format if:
- the computer is not booting from the cd drive.
- the cd drive is in the docking station so i can't
disconnect the latter.
- file system is ntfs and fdisk utility is not going to
delete the files.

appreciate your response. thanks.
>-----Original Message-----
>Are you sure the old installations are still there?
>Because it could be the XP installation only saved the
>boot.ini entry for the other two OS's. If you can't boot
>into the other operating systems but is shows up as an
>option then all you need to do is edit your boot.ini.
The
>boot.ini is a hidden file on your boot drive, probably
>the 'c:\'drive. It will have a line that looks like this:
>
>[operating systems]
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
>Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
>
>There will also be an additional line for each
additional
>operating system. You can delete both of these two other
>lines, just make sure you make a backup copy before you
>make any changes.
>Another less intrusive way to accomplish basically the
>same thing is to boot into the XP system, right click
>on 'My Computer' and select properties. Click
>on 'Advanced', click 'Settings' in the Startup area.
Make
>sure the default operating system is set to XP and
uncheck
>the first check box.
>If you find that the other two OS's are in fact still
>loaded but on separate partitions you can format them by
>right clicking on 'My Computer' select 'Manage',
>select 'Disk Management', Right click on the partition
>with the OS you want to format. One of your options will
>be 'Format Partition'.
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>hope you're doing fine, this is my problem.
>>i have a laptop with multiboot operating system (win
2000
>>pro and win 98. i wanted to make a clean install for
win
>>xp pro with sp1 built in. i meant a clean install and
not
>>an upgrade as i am not in need for the multiboot
>>facility. the process of the clean installation goes on
>>and on up to the end. when rebooting my computer i
>>discovered that the previous OS in addition to the win
xp
>>still exist while they were supposed to be cleaned out.
i
>>tried to format the harddisc using the cd rom. i
>>couldn't. i am unable to use fdisk as the file system
is
>>NTFS. how can i bring my computer to do this. kindly
give
>>me tips and thanks for your cooperation in advance.
>>
>>.
>>
>.
>