partition/format drive question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roscoe
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Roscoe

OK, stupid question. How do I reformat the c: drive under windows so I
can reinstall? And, how do I partition drives? Old days I would boot
off a floppy and do it. Don't know how under windows XP.

Thanks!

Roscoe
 
Roscoe said:
OK, stupid question. How do I reformat the c: drive under windows so I
can reinstall? And, how do I partition drives? Old days I would boot
off a floppy and do it. Don't know how under windows XP.

Thanks!

Roscoe
Click to expand...


You can't do that, windows won't let you, [think of it as MS's way of
protecting the inocents from themselves ;-) ].

Boot from your XP CD and delete all partitions during the setup
process, formatting will be done at this time,
if you trust the HDD do a quick format to save time.

rgds
Roberto
 
Roscoe said:
OK, stupid question. How do I reformat the c: drive under windows so
I can reinstall? And, how do I partition drives? Old days I would
boot off a floppy and do it. Don't know how under windows XP.
Click to expand...


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
 
OK, but this creates a problem ( I think). I did as you all suggested
and allowed XP setup to delete the partition and then recreate one.
Problem was the drive previously had two partitions, one primary with
one logical drive (C:) and one extended partition with two logical
drives (D: and E:). FWIW, I also had a second drive, one extended
partition with one logical drive (F:). When I finished the install,
the drive letters were all goobered up. What was D: became J: (among
others, but this being the issue at hand). I want that drive to be D:
so I went to disk management to reassign the drive letter... XP said it
was a system drive and could not be changed. C: was the boot drive and
could not be changed either (although I don't want to). What used to
be the E: drive could be and was reassigned back to E:.

So how did D: become a system drive, and why did it become J:? (Note I
have a media device with 4 USB-driven removable drives that take 4
drive letters...somehow they filled in the drive letters after C:
before the hard drives..also note (if it matters) that the drives are
configured to take the slave/master role based on the cable position,
not the dip switches...I did that because they are removable).

Short of repartitioning, how can I eliminate the system tag on the
logical drive in the second partition so I can reassign it to be D:?

Thanks!
 
Roscoe said:
OK, but this creates a problem ( I think). I did as you all suggested
and allowed XP setup to delete the partition and then recreate one.
Problem was the drive previously had two partitions, one primary with
one logical drive (C:) and one extended partition with two logical
drives (D: and E:). FWIW, I also had a second drive, one extended
partition with one logical drive (F:). When I finished the install,
the drive letters were all goobered up. What was D: became J: (among
others, but this being the issue at hand). I want that drive to be D:
so I went to disk management to reassign the drive letter... XP said it
was a system drive and could not be changed. C: was the boot drive and
could not be changed either (although I don't want to). What used to
be the E: drive could be and was reassigned back to E:.

So how did D: become a system drive, and why did it become J:? (Note I
have a media device with 4 USB-driven removable drives that take 4
drive letters...somehow they filled in the drive letters after C:
before the hard drives..also note (if it matters) that the drives are
configured to take the slave/master role based on the cable position,
not the dip switches...I did that because they are removable).

Short of repartitioning, how can I eliminate the system tag on the
logical drive in the second partition so I can reassign it to be D:?

Thanks!


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
Click to expand...

if you are comfortable editing the registry ...the drive letters can be
adjusted here ...be very careful!
hint: write down all your drive letters and what drive they are first !

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Click to expand...
 
I'm ant work and not at home, so I looked at those keys on my work
machine. Wow...I don't have an issue with editing the registry, but
those keys are extremely convoluted...I can't even begin to figure what
I'm supposed to edit...
 
Roscoe said:
OK, stupid question. How do I reformat the c: drive under windows so I
can reinstall? And, how do I partition drives? Old days I would boot
off a floppy and do it. Don't know how under windows XP.

Thanks!

Roscoe
Click to expand...


Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm


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Bruce Chambers

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Roscoe said:
OK, but this creates a problem ( I think). I did as you all suggested
and allowed XP setup to delete the partition and then recreate one.
Problem was the drive previously had two partitions, one primary with
one logical drive (C:) and one extended partition with two logical
drives (D: and E:). FWIW, I also had a second drive, one extended
partition with one logical drive (F:). When I finished the install,
the drive letters were all goobered up. What was D: became J: (among
others, but this being the issue at hand). I want that drive to be D:
so I went to disk management to reassign the drive letter... XP said it
was a system drive and could not be changed. C: was the boot drive and
could not be changed either (although I don't want to). What used to
be the E: drive could be and was reassigned back to E:.

So how did D: become a system drive, and why did it become J:? (Note I
have a media device with 4 USB-driven removable drives that take 4
drive letters...somehow they filled in the drive letters after C:
before the hard drives..also note (if it matters) that the drives are
configured to take the slave/master role based on the cable position,
not the dip switches...I did that because they are removable).

Short of repartitioning, how can I eliminate the system tag on the
logical drive in the second partition so I can reassign it to be D:?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You should have said there were other drives & devices in the machine,
short of editing the registry as advised by Haggis, which could be a right
pain in the )*( I would disconnect all drives /media device except C: and do
a reinstall.

rgds
Roberto
 
Hello,

If you wish, you could use command prompt. Invoke the diskpart command.

If you don't currently have important or needed data on the other drives,
you can use diskpart to erase the drives/volumes/partitions and then create
extended and/or logical partitions with the desired drive letters. If you
have 9 GB, you can just create another primary drive, format it NTFS or FAT
(NTFS is the suggested format) and install the OS on that drive. Then you can
set that drive to the ACTIVE drive and erase the other drives. here is a
clean command..but I have been told that the format does the same. You have
to make sure you mark the NEW drive with the Installed OS as the ACTIVE
drive. After you mark it ACTIVE, you will have to turn off the machine ans
then install the OS on the New active drive. This will allow you to create
the drive/size/type/drive letter/ etc...After the installation, you can
manipulate the other drives and or create extended/logical/primary volumes
and format, etc... If NTFS, you can also Mount a folder...Pretty handy also...



Roscoe said:
OK, but this creates a problem ( I think). I did as you all suggested
and allowed XP setup to delete the partition and then recreate one.
Problem was the drive previously had two partitions, one primary with
one logical drive (C:) and one extended partition with two logical
drives (D: and E:). FWIW, I also had a second drive, one extended
partition with one logical drive (F:). When I finished the install,
the drive letters were all goobered up. What was D: became J: (among
others, but this being the issue at hand). I want that drive to be D:
so I went to disk management to reassign the drive letter... XP said it
was a system drive and could not be changed. C: was the boot drive and
could not be changed either (although I don't want to). What used to
be the E: drive could be and was reassigned back to E:.

So how did D: become a system drive, and why did it become J:? (Note I
have a media device with 4 USB-driven removable drives that take 4
drive letters...somehow they filled in the drive letters after C:
before the hard drives..also note (if it matters) that the drives are
configured to take the slave/master role based on the cable position,
not the dip switches...I did that because they are removable).

Short of repartitioning, how can I eliminate the system tag on the
logical drive in the second partition so I can reassign it to be D:?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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