reformatting xp

  • Thread starter Thread starter marsden_phil
  • Start date Start date
M

marsden_phil

hi, i need to reformat my pc to get rid of alot of spyware and just to
generally speed up my pc. i have 3 partitions (over 2 hard drives) and
i just want to format one of the partitions (C drive). i thought the
way to do it was to go into my computer, right click on C drive and
click Format. this doesn't work, it says that windows can't format the
drive because programs are running (i presume this in windows). can
anyone tell me an easy way to format one partition?
 
hi, i need to reformat my pc to get rid of alot of spyware and just to
generally speed up my pc. i have 3 partitions (over 2 hard drives) and
i just want to format one of the partitions (C drive). i thought the
way to do it was to go into my computer, right click on C drive and
click Format. this doesn't work, it says that windows can't format the
drive because programs are running (i presume this in windows). can
anyone tell me an easy way to format one partition?
Click to expand...
Boot from your xp installation CD & it'll give you the option of
reformatting.
 
Follow these instructions if you have had virus/spyware on your system;

Formatting HD for XP

Clean install:

In order to do a very clean install you may want to download and create a
(FKA) Low Level Format diskette. You should be able to get a LLF (HD format
utility that writes 0's to the drive) utility from your HD manufacture:

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

The reason is that some viruses and even Windows OS can leave traces of
itself on your HD, I have formatted numerous systems, set specificate
settings, re-formatted the unit using Windows XP OS and there it was most
settings where already set, this LLF utility will insure that the hard drive
be wiped clean for XP or any OS install. Be advised that this utility will
wipe all partitions from your drive so you will have to re-create them, no
biggy this is part of the OS installation process.

Insert XP CD into your CD-Rom drive (the BIOS must be set to boot from the
CD-Rom 1st), power down the PC. Before powering the PC on, unplug the
Internet connection, scanners, printers, any peripheral attached including
modems, wireless cards.

Power on PC, when windows starts create your partition(s) as desired
(example below), format your primary partition and install XP. Once the OS
has installed do not connect to the Internet, install your anti-virus and
firewall, connect to the Internet and do your live updates for your
anti-virus, firewall, then windows, after this has completed install the rest
of your SW and perform your updates to these.

Download the latest drivers for your peripherals, then install your
hardware, (note: some peripherals require that you first install the SW prior
to installing the hardware, consult your manufactures manual for
instructions).

Note: Partition creation suggestions, this example is for a drive of 40GB’s.

C: (3 GB), D: (28 GB), then I would leave the extra untouched in case I
would want to do testing, installing different OS like Linux or Win 2K/2003
server or any other OS. Install the OS on the larger drive (AKA Partition).
Install the OS to the D: drive.

Why 3 GB initial partition? It is because you may want to place your
pagefile on this partition most Windows OS’s work better when the pagefile is
on a different drive and since Windows accesses this file every time it is
used this would speed up file access, or file swapping. Another would be that
if for some unforeseen reason you have to format your PC you can place your
Data on this drive then format your boot partition drive safely.
 
A said:
The whole disk or just one partition?

A
Click to expand...
Any or all.

If you're interested in management of non-master partitions/drives,
start>run>compmgmt.msc
Under Storage tab is Disk Management. Make sure that what you are doing
is really what you want to do for obvious reasons.

With the installation CD you can do the same things on the master
partition as well, including deletion of all partitions/drives &
creation of one big one. You may re-format your c: drive & reinstall
Windows without affecting any other drive.
 
WARNING

The procedure in the previous post will delete all partitions on the hard
drive with very little chance of any data recovery.

You should warn people before you post something like this. There is no need
to do a low level format just to delete one partition. It is very rare that
a low level format is needed to clean a virus. I have worked on thousands of
computers and seen one root kit where I did a low level format just to be
sure.
 
During the install all the partitions will be listed. You can pick and
choose which ones to delete and then re-create. Be very careful which ones
you delete. I suggest temporarily disconnecting any hard drives except the
one you are installing Windows on. Be aware that if you don't delete all the
partitions and/or disconnect unused drives that Windows may end up on a
partition other than C:. Drive letters often get re-assigned when
re-installing Windows. This is a cosmetic issue only but it bothers some
people. Backup your data before you start reinstalling Windows. There is
always the possibilty of something going wrong when deleting partitions.
 
hi, i need to reformat my pc to get rid of alot of spyware ...
Click to expand...



Formatting the hard drive to solve a virus or spyware problem is
rather like using an axe to trim one's fingernails. Sure, it'll
probably get the job done, but it's rather messy...., and almost always
unnecessary.

and just to
generally speed up my pc.
Click to expand...


Formatting the hard drive to solve a perceived performance issue is
also rather like using an axe to trim one's fingernails. Sure, it'll
probably get the job done, but it's rather messy...., and almost always
completely unnecessary.

i have 3 partitions (over 2 hard drives) and
i just want to format one of the partitions (C drive). i thought the
way to do it was to go into my computer, right click on C drive and
click Format. this doesn't work, it says that windows can't format the
drive because programs are running (i presume this in windows).
Click to expand...



You're trying to format the drive containing the system volume from
within WinXP. You can't. This would be the computer equivalent of
sawing off the tree limb you're sitting on, and WinXP is "too smart" to
allow this.


can
anyone tell me an easy way to format one partition?
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


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
I have been doing this for 20 years, Read my post it states a CLEAN install.
If you have had a virus on your system, LLF the drive.
 
No this will insure a clean install, are you stating to sweep the problem
under the rug? Because this is what you are doing by trying to fix a virul
issue. If you have a Nuclear disaster, you do not through dirt on top to
cover the problem.

If you want a clean install LLF the drive.

Bruce has always given great answers to issues that people have posted on
this site, and I do respect his posts, does not mean that I agree with them.
 
SteveL said:
I have been doing this for 20 years, Read my post it states a CLEAN install.
Click to expand...


Nonsense. If that were true, you wouldn';t be offering such amateurish
and potentially harmful advice.

If you have had a virus on your system, LLF the drive.
Click to expand...

Why? Have you never, in "20 years," heard of anti-virus applications?


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
SteveL said:
I have been doing this for 20 years, Read my post it states a CLEAN
install. If you have had a virus on your system, LLF the drive.
Click to expand...

<snipped>

If that's how you clean viruses then have at it. Personally I think it's a
lot of unnecessary work. As I say I have seen many viruses over the years.
There are some partition table viruses that just deleting and re-creating
the partition won't remove. These are very simple viruses that are easily
removed by all current antivirus products. My concern isn't with your
method. It's up to you how much work you want to do. It's that your warning
that following your advice would erase all partitions on the drive and may
cause data loss was buried in the post and glossed over as "no biggy". Many
if not most of the people reading this newsgroup would not have known this.
If they follow your advice they may lose their data that was on another
partition they wanted to keep. The OP makes mention of 3 partitions over 2
drives and only wanting to delete the system partition.

As an aside, setting up a 3 GB system partition is ludicrous. You could
barely fit XP into it. Next service pack you would be out of luck. If your
intent was to only put the page file in the 3 GB and the system in another
partition then again that is flawed. In most cases this will actually slow
down Windows as the drive has to do longer seeks to read/write the page
file. The only way to speed up page file use is to put the page file on a
different drive that is connected to a different controller. Even then with
the speed of modern drives it's unlikely most users would notice any
performance improvement.
 
Who says YOU??? LOL you will learn.

Kerry Brown said:
<snipped>

If that's how you clean viruses then have at it. Personally I think it's a
lot of unnecessary work. As I say I have seen many viruses over the years.
There are some partition table viruses that just deleting and re-creating
the partition won't remove. These are very simple viruses that are easily
removed by all current antivirus products. My concern isn't with your
method. It's up to you how much work you want to do. It's that your warning
that following your advice would erase all partitions on the drive and may
cause data loss was buried in the post and glossed over as "no biggy". Many
if not most of the people reading this newsgroup would not have known this.
If they follow your advice they may lose their data that was on another
partition they wanted to keep. The OP makes mention of 3 partitions over 2
drives and only wanting to delete the system partition.

As an aside, setting up a 3 GB system partition is ludicrous. You could
barely fit XP into it. Next service pack you would be out of luck. If your
intent was to only put the page file in the 3 GB and the system in another
partition then again that is flawed. In most cases this will actually slow
down Windows as the drive has to do longer seeks to read/write the page
file. The only way to speed up page file use is to put the page file on a
different drive that is connected to a different controller. Even then with
the speed of modern drives it's unlikely most users would notice any
performance improvement.
Click to expand...
 
LOL, you apparantly have no clue, the posts says reformat, this means wipping
clean, this means that if you do not back up your data it is gone, so what
exactly that you want me to warn people about???
 
Mr Chambers please explain to the group HOW this is harmfull. When you insert
the XP cd and do a clean install (or format), this DOES NOT wipe the system
clean. especially if you do not change your partition sizes, tested and
retested.

Have a good day.
 
SteveL said:
LOL, you apparantly have no clue, the posts says reformat, this means
wipping clean, this means that if you do not back up your data it is
gone, so what exactly that you want me to warn people about???
Click to expand...

Let's follow through your advice and see what would happen to the average
user.

First they download a utility and low level format their hard drive. The OP
mentioned they wanted to format one partition and reinstall Windows. It was
also mentioned that their were three partitions on two hard drives. If there
happened to be two partitions on the boot drive you have just nuked both
partitions. Most people don't have good backups and not realising this was
going to happen they have just lost all the data on the second partition.

Next they use your partitioning scheme and install XP on a 3 GB partition.
They install SP2, download Windows updates and install their programs. This
takes up 2.5 GB. A few months later they try to install a new program or
service pack and are told there is not enough room. What do they do now?
Like most users they have System Restore, IE temp files set at the defaults
and have never cleaned out the Temp folder. Someone tells them to run Disk
Cleanup so they do and get enough room to install their program which
happens to use a sql database with MSDE. How long do you think it will be
until their data is corrupt? What if this is a small business and losing
their data twice in few months causes them to fold the business?

When answering newsgroup posts you have to do one of two things. Write the
answer based on the lowest common denominator (a clueless newbie) or provide
detailed, explicit instructions with reasons for your choices.
 
SteveL said:
Mr Chambers please explain to the group HOW this is harmfull.
Click to expand...


The "group" doesn';t need the explanation; apparently only you fail to
see the danger of giving such advice to inexperienced users.

When you insert
the XP cd and do a clean install (or format), this DOES NOT wipe the system
clean.
Click to expand...


Oh? That's news. Granted, formatting doesn't destroy the file system,
but that's rarely necessary. Formatting cleans the hard drive well
enough for all but DoD security purposes.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
Back
Top