Will a reformat of drive C: touch drive D:?

[Guest]

I'm planning on reformatting tonight, but instead of backing up to CD (or any
other non-harddisk media), I would rather just put it on a new partition. Ive
read that you need third party software to create a new partition, so I have
PartitionMagic.

I havent reformatted in a while and i kind of forget the process. Will the
installer want to take all my data, or can I specify to leave my new
partition alone?

Thanks in advance!
-Tim

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Assuming you have a full retail copy of windows xp you will be able to
specify which partition you install windows xp on. If you only have a
manufacturer's recovery disk then it will use all of your hard drive for
installing xp and you will then loose the partition you have added.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I'm planning on reformatting tonight, but instead of backing up to CD (or any
other non-harddisk media), I would rather just put it on a new partition. Ive
read that you need third party software to create a new partition, so I have
PartitionMagic.

I havent reformatted in a while and i kind of forget the process. Will the
installer want to take all my data, or can I specify to leave my new
partition alone?

Thanks in advance!
-Tim

Simply formatting one partition won't affect another partition.
However, it's possible to accidentally format the wrong partition.
I'd back up my data first.

There's always a risk of data loss when using a program like
PartitionMagic (or my choice, BootIt Next Generation) to manipulate
partitions. I'd back up my data first.

It's possible to specify the wrong partition when installing an
operating system. I'd back up my data first.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Splitting a partition even with something like Partition Magic is
fraught with dangers. You must have sufficient contiguous free space to
create your new partition or you run the risk of losing ALL your data.

A safer way to go is to purchase and install a second HDD.

If you have been using EFS and did not create a recovery agent and
exported the key and certificate then decrypt all your documents or
they will be unreadable via the new installation. Copy or rename your
My Documents forlder to something like Old My Documents.

If you use Outlook or Outlook Express you will probably have to export
your address books and mybe your email (I don't use either so I am
Unsure here).

You may like to look at using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to
help here.

Disconnect or remove your old boot disk.

Install the new disk, jumper it to be Master, then boot from the CD,
partition and format the new disk and reinstall windows and the
motherboard drives and video driver.

Once the machine is working again and you have done all your patching,
installed you anti-viral program and firewall etc. shut the machine
down.

Rejumper the old drive as Slave, reinstall it and reboot you can then
transfer your documents and settings etc.

Once every thing has been successfully transfered and you are sure you
have all your data etc you can srub the old hard drive and us it as a
back up data drive.

 

[Guest]

Thank you guys!