Windows formating

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True, Si units are "new" (relatevily), that doesn't make HD manufactures
wrong, or more - it doesn't place them into FUD group.

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
Windows predates these new SI units. The whole computer industry have always
used 2^n except for drive mfgs. A sector has just under 600 bytes (timing
bytes + data bytes). HD mfgrs have been known to count these in the past.
Want a 1.44 MB floppy, sorry they are sold as 2.MB.
 
Why? What would that do that a format will not? Please provide a
sound technical reason, assuming the OP has no need or desire to change
the partition's size.
Click to expand...


1. He said he wants to "wipe the hard drive clean".

And
2. I have NO intention of starting an argument. I am here to
swap help for help, not to engage in pissing contests.

Give me one reason to NOT fdisk, if he wants to "wipe the
drive" and "start fresh."

I got into this with an engineer some 10 years ago. He
started saying, "John (my name), there is no reason I can
see to fdisk EVERY time you format!"

I said, "Bruce, I'm no teckie, but can you think of ANY
issues that would not be resolved by MERELY formatting?'

He said he could think of "several issues that formatting
alone would not resolve " (he didn't elaborate).

I then asked him to give me a reason why fdisking EVERY
TIEM is NOT a good idea.

"Only one", my computer engineer buddy said. "Wear and
tear."

I can live with "wear and tear" to have a squeaky clean,
BARE assed hard drive every time I install an OS.

There are a MYRIAD of issues that will NOT arise if I ALWAYS
ALWAYS ALWAYS fdisk FIRST.

If you want to mess with a myriad of issues to save yourself
the 5 SECONDS it now takes to delete and reinstall a
partition...

"be my guest!"

:-)


It TRULY isn't something I would argue about. I have been
fdisking and formatting for 20 years now, and I SWEAR by it.

Since the invention of XP, it's even EASY!


Have a GREAT DAY!

:-)

"To each their own!"

Tallahassee
 
If you want it to wipe the drive, and it doesn't, then you're just doing it
wrong, as Bruce said.

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).
Click to expand...

Correct! If you want a "squeaky clean" install,
1. delete the partition
2. repartition
3. format the drive
4. install the OS

Items 3 and 4 will be combined into one operation.

And once you have begun the departition/repartition process,

LEAVE THE COMPUTER ALONE until it asks you a question

When you get BACK to the prompt where it asks you to press a
button to boot from your CD

DO NOTHING!

The first input YOU will need to worry about will be on a
screen that looks like Windows is almost ready to go.

And, IIRC, it will ask you for your name and company name
and password.

Until you reach that point, Windows does NOT need your help.


Tallahassee
 
Ok just to be sure, I delete the existing partion then create a new one and
thats it??
Click to expand...


Boot from the CD. When it asks you to press a button to boot
from the CD, press a button. (I normally use the space bar).

Follow the prompts to the menu.

When you are asked if you want to delete the partition.

Select the partition (C)

Delete the partition.

When you are asked if you want to partition the drive.

Partition the drive.

It will ask you if you want to install XP on your new
partition.

Answer yes.

This begins the
A formatting
B install process

Once the computer formats the hard drive, it will
AUTOMATICALLY being installing Windows.



Do NOTHING until you are asked to input your name.


That means, when you see the system prompt (black screen)


"press any key to boot from CD"


--> DO NOTHING!!! <--



Tallahassee
 
No, it doesn't. Where'd you ever get such an idea.
Click to expand...

From several sources, including a systems engineer.

If I am imparting bad info, excuse me!

But it's 2nd hand!

The "tech" at the store is a complete idiot. That most definitely is
not "XP." WinXP, like other operating systems, measures kilobytes,
megabytes, and gigabytes as:

1 Kb = 1024 bytes
1 Mb = 1024 Kb = 1,048,576 bytes
1 Gb = 1024 Mb = 1,073,741,824 bytes

However, a common marketing ploy used by hard drive manufacturers
to make their products seem a bit larger than they really are is to
assign the value of an even 1,000,000,000 bytes to the gigabyte.
Click to expand...

"Whatever you say!'

I'll get my hdd seller and my systems engineer in here and
you can give both a fat lip!


:-)

Tallahassee
 
Talahasee said:
1. He said he wants to "wipe the hard drive clean".

And
2. I have NO intention of starting an argument. I am here to
swap help for help, not to engage in pissing contests.
Click to expand...


If you want to provide help, learn something about about the subject first.

Give me one reason to NOT fdisk, if he wants to "wipe the
drive" and "start fresh."
Click to expand...


Because it 's entirely unnecessary and a waste of time and effort. You
repartition when you want to change the partition structure. Otherwise you
don't.
 
Talahasee said:
Give me one reason to NOT fdisk, if he wants to "wipe the
drive" and "start fresh."
Click to expand...


You mean, besides the fact that FDISK is an old MS-DOS utility that has
absolutely no place anywhere near a WinXP computer? (Unless one is
planning to dual-boot with MS-DOS and therefore needs a 2GB or smaller
FAT16 partition.) If the OP *wants* to delete the partition and then
recreate it, he's certainly free to do so. But there's absolutely no
technical reason that he needs or "should" do so. It's simply a waste
of time.

I got into this with an engineer some 10 years ago.
Click to expand...


Which makes the alleged conversation completely irrelevant when
discussing WinXP.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
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