Deleting partition

[Caroline \(shadoe\)]

Disk 0 is partioned into C and K. They are NTFS. C is primary partition
and K is logical drive. I want to delete the partition but neither drive
gives me the option of deleting the partition. What am I doing wrong????
Any help is most appreciated...

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

My guess would be that 'k:' is the 'primary partition', and that the
'nominal' 'C:' partition is a 'logical' partition, in an 'extended'
partition. The primary cannot be deleted without first removing the extended
partition, and the 'system' drive, on the extended partition cannot be
deleted within a boot to itself (C

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[John John (MVP)]

Are you trying to do this with the Windows XP built-in Disk Management
tool? (To start the Disk Management tool enter diskmgmt.msc in the
Start menu Run box)

If you are trying this from the Disk Management tool and if the "Delete
Partition..." is unavailable it indicates that the C: drive is the
System drive and that the K: drive is the boot volume.

John

 

[Caroline \(shadoe\)]

You are both correct!!! I had a crash and then I discovered that my OS was
gone from the C drive and the files from D and K were now on C and K and the
C and K files were reversed... eg the K drive was where my OS was and the
files that are now on the C drive, were on my K drive. I realize that this
is very confusing. In spite of this, I reinstalled the OS and it installed
to "C" ..... what a mess!!!!! All I want to do is format disk 0 with no
partition. Can I do this and can either of you help me please???

 

[John John (MVP)]

Do you want to completely reinstall Windows from scratch again? If so
just boot with your Windows XP cd and at the beginning of the
installation routine, (at the disk/partition selection screen), you will
be offered to option to delete and recreate the partitions as you want
them and format them.

If you are trying to do this within Windows you are out of luck, you
obviously cannot format the partition where Windows resides and you
cannot format the partition where the System files Boot.ini,
NTDETECT.COM and ntldr reside. Furthermore, you cannot move the System
files (Boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr) to a logical drive, to be able
to boot Windows these files *must* reside on a primary active partition,
the Windows files can be on a logical drive.

John