Does your system have a floppy drive? If so, you can use a Win98/ME boot
disk to FDisk and format your HD. If not, USB floppy drives are
inexpensive....$20 bucks or so. If you choose to go the FDisk route, be
aware that NTFS partitions will not display as such when using FDisk. They
will list as non-dos partitions and you just delete them and begin the
format/partitioning process. All partitions you create will be FAT or FAT32
and XP will install on such a partition. Once XP is installed you can then,
if you wish, convert the partitions to NTFS from within XP. These links
should useful,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q255867/ ,
http://www.bootdisk.com/ ,
http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/ .
The following is copied from XP's Help and Support:
Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32
You can choose between three file systems for disk partitions on a computer
running Windows XP: NTFS, FAT, and FAT32. Use the information below to
compare the file systems.
NTFS is the recommended file system for the following reasons:
a.. NTFS is more powerful than FAT or FAT32, and includes features
required for hosting Active Directory as well as other important security
features. You can use features such as Active Directory and domain-based
security only by choosing NTFS as your file system.
b.. It is easy to convert partitions to NTFS. The Setup program makes
conversion easy, whether your partitions used FAT, FAT32, or the older
version of NTFS. This kind of conversion keeps your files intact (unlike
formatting a partition). If you do not need to keep your files intact and
you have a FAT or FAT32 partition, it is recommended that you format the
partition with NTFS rather than convert from FAT or FAT32. Formatting a
partition erases all data on the partition and allows you to start with a
clean drive.
Whether a partition is formatted with NTFS or converted using the convert
command, NTFS is the better choice of file system. For more information
about Convert.exe, after completing Setup, click Start, click Run, type cmd,
and then press ENTER. In the command window, type help convert and then
press ENTER.
c.. In order to maintain access control on files and folders and support
limited accounts, you must use NTFS. If you use FAT32, all users will have
access to all files on your hard drive, regardless of their account type
(administrator, limited, or standard.)
d.. NTFS is the file system that works best with large disks. (The next
best file system for large disks is FAT32.)
There is one situation in which you might want to choose FAT or FAT32 as
your file system. If it is necessary to have a computer that will sometimes
run an earlier version of Windows and other times run Windows XP, you will
need to have a FAT or FAT32 partition as the primary (or startup) partition
on the hard disk. Most earlier versions of Windows cannot access a partition
if it uses the latest version of NTFS. The two exceptions are Windows 2000
and Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later. Windows NT 4.0 with Service
Pack 4 or later has access to partitions with the latest version of NTFS,
but with some limitations: It cannot access files that have been stored
using NTFS features that did not exist when Windows NT 4.0 was released.
For anything other than a situation with multiple operating systems,
however, the recommended file system is NTFS.
Important
a.. Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS, you cannot simply
convert it back to FAT or FAT32. You will need to reformat the drive or
partition which will erase all data including programs and personal files on
the partition.
The following table describes the compatibility of each file system with
various operating systems.
NTFS FAT FAT32
A computer running Windows XP or Windows 2000 can access files on an
NTFS partition. A computer running Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or
later might be able to access some files. Other operating systems allow no
access. Access is available through MS-DOS, all versions of Windows, Windows
NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and OS/2. Access is available only through
Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, and
Windows XP.
The following table compares disk and file sizes possible with each file
system.
NTFS FAT FAT32
Recommended minimum volume size is approximately 10 megabytes (MB).
Volumes much larger than 2 terabytes (TB) are possible.
Cannot be used on floppy disks.
Volumes from floppy disk size up to 4 gigabytes (GB).
Does not support domains.
Volumes from 512 MB to 2 TB.
In Windows XP, you can format a FAT32 volume up to 32 GB only.
Does not support domains.
File size limited only by size of volume. Maximum file size is 2 GB.
Maximum file size is 4 GB.
