Formatting Drive C

  • Thread starter Thread starter D@ny
  • Start date Start date
No not within XP because the drive would be in use, to format the C drive you
could either do that with your XP install CD when booting or from a boot
floppy disk.

Andy W
 
D@ny said:
Can the drive C be formatted from Windows XP on its own?
Click to expand...


Assuming that C: is the drive on which Windows is installed, no.

You can't format the Windows drive from within Windows, since that would
leave Windows without a leg to stand on. Windows is too smart to let you do
that.

Assuming that your intent is to reinstall Windows cleanly, just boot from
the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to accomplish
this) and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the existing
partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm
 
D@ny said:
Can the drive C be formatted from Windows XP on its own?
Click to expand...

No. Not if XP is on C:.

One cant even format an NTFS partition after booting with a dos
bootdisk.
 
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