Hi, Sidney.
This is a Windows XP newsgroup, so I assume you are using Windows XP, not
MS-DOS or Windows 9x/ME. If that is not a correct assumption, please
correct it for us.
FDISK is the wrong tool to use in WinXP, since it runs in MS-DOS, which
cannot read or write or even SEE an NTFS volume, so that might be why it is
giving you a problem. Are any volumes on that HD formatted as NTFS?
Disk Management is the tool to use in Win2K and later to create, delete and
otherwise manipulate hard disk partitions and logical drives, and to format
and reformat them. It can't do much with the System Partition (typically
Drive C
and the Boot Volume (also often Drive C
, but for all other
volumes, this is the proper utility. Many users have not yet found Disk
Management, which first appeared in Win2K, nearly five years ago. There are
several ways to get to it; one is to type at the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc
Physically install your old HD as secondary or slave, then boot into WinXP
normally and start Disk Management. Expand DM to full screen and click View
to adjust the screen to suit you. I like to see the Volume List at the top
and the Graphical View on the bottom. Find your target HD and use DM to
delete the logical drives and then the extended partition and any primary
partition(s) that still exist. That should make the whole HD "unallocated
space", from which you can create any partitions you want, and then format
them. If you get stuck anywhere, the Help file is much better than in
previous versions of Windows.
Another way to solve the problem is to boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and let
WinXP Setup repartition and reformat the HD. Let it get at least as far as
deleting the existing partitions, then abort Setup. Boot into WinXP and use
Disk Management to finish the job. If you insist on using FAT32, you could
boot from your Win9x/ME floppy and use FDISK and Format.com, but why? The
only valid reason that I know of is if you plan to install Win9x/ME on this
computer (dual boot, maybe?). Otherwise, use NTFS all the way for enhanced
security, especially on today's ever-larger HDs.
RC
