Windows setup not letting me re-format

[Guest]

My computer has been soooo slow... so I backed up everything important and
now I'm going to re-format my Dell laptop. So I put in my restore CD,
restarted, went to the set-up screen, and when I try to delete my C: drive,
it says something like "The drive cannot be deleted because setup files
necessary to the installation are on there." Is there any way to resolve this
problem?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| My computer has been soooo slow... so I backed up everything important and
| now I'm going to re-format my Dell laptop. So I put in my restore CD,
| restarted, went to the set-up screen, and when I try to delete my C: drive,
| it says something like "The drive cannot be deleted because setup files
| necessary to the installation are on there." Is there any way to resolve this
| problem?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

The original poster had stated that they were trying to "restore" their Dell
PC with a "restore CD". I guess this CD is a "System Recovery" CD which
will/should place the Dell PC back to its original XP setups.

You need to follow the system recovery process step by step. Usually, you
need to "boot" the PC with the recovery CD in the CD/DVD drive.

 

[Guest]

I'm using a Windows XP Home SP2 installation CD, so it's nothing
Dell-specific. And I still can't seem to get it to work even when I boot it
from the CD. It still tells me I can't delete my C: drive because necessary
files for setup are on there, and it'll just tell me to go back. I also have
a 39 MB FAT partition (I have no idea where that came from), and 8 MB of
unpartitioned space. There is nothing plugged in to my computer except the
power cord.

I want a Mac.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

The original poster had stated that they were trying to "restore" their Dell
PC with a "restore CD". I guess this CD is a "System Recovery" CD which
will/should place the Dell PC back to its original XP setups.

You need to follow the system recovery process step by step. Usually, you
need to "boot" the PC with the recovery CD in the CD/DVD drive.

 

[Guest]

Was the original problem ever resolved?

I have a Dell laptop upon which I'm attempting to reinstall XP Home SP2 from
the Dell
Reinstallation CD. I am having a very similar problem. I boot from the CD
and get to the "Welcome to Setup" screen. I select "set up Windows XP now"
and when I get to the
"Setup" screen (after accepting the license (F*)) I see the following
partition list:

-: Partition 1 [FAT] 47 MB ( 39 MB
free)
C: Partition2 [Unknown] 34562 MB ( 34561 MB free)
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 3538 MB ( 468 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB

If I select Partition2 and attempt to set up XP by pressing Enter, I get the
error message "An error occurred while Setu was updating partition
information on:
38155 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]. Setup cannot continue."

If I attempt to delete Partition2 (or Partition3 for that matter) by
selecting it and
pressing 'D', I get "the partition you selected cannot be deleted".

I have booted into the Recovery Console and FORMATted C: but still the same
result.
CHKDSK reports 'okay' but when forced with the '/p' parameter, it reports
unrecoverable errors. This is true for C: and E:. Using PARTDISK gets me
the same
results (as I expected).

I'm really getting frustrated. Am posting this from my MacBook and am
seriously
close to abandoning Windows altogether. Please help!

I'm using a Windows XP Home SP2 installation CD, so it's nothing
Dell-specific. And I still can't seem to get it to work even when I boot it
from the CD. It still tells me I can't delete my C: drive because necessary
files for setup are on there, and it'll just tell me to go back. I also have
a 39 MB FAT partition (I have no idea where that came from), and 8 MB of
unpartitioned space. There is nothing plugged in to my computer except the
power cord.

I want a Mac.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

The original poster had stated that they were trying to "restore" their Dell
PC with a "restore CD". I guess this CD is a "System Recovery" CD which
will/should place the Dell PC back to its original XP setups.

You need to follow the system recovery process step by step. Usually, you
need to "boot" the PC with the recovery CD in the CD/DVD drive.

 

[Rock]

Was the original problem ever resolved?

I have a Dell laptop upon which I'm attempting to reinstall XP Home SP2
from
the Dell
Reinstallation CD. I am having a very similar problem. I boot from the
CD
and get to the "Welcome to Setup" screen. I select "set up Windows XP
now"
and when I get to the
"Setup" screen (after accepting the license (F*)) I see the following
partition list:

-: Partition 1 [FAT] 47 MB ( 39 MB
free)
C: Partition2 [Unknown] 34562 MB ( 34561 MB free)
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 3538 MB ( 468 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB

If I select Partition2 and attempt to set up XP by pressing Enter, I get
the
error message "An error occurred while Setu was updating partition
information on:
38155 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]. Setup cannot continue."

If I attempt to delete Partition2 (or Partition3 for that matter) by
selecting it and
pressing 'D', I get "the partition you selected cannot be deleted".

I have booted into the Recovery Console and FORMATted C: but still the
same
result.
CHKDSK reports 'okay' but when forced with the '/p' parameter, it reports
unrecoverable errors. This is true for C: and E:. Using PARTDISK gets me
the same
results (as I expected).

I'm really getting frustrated. Am posting this from my MacBook and am
seriously
close to abandoning Windows altogether. Please help!

Download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive manufacturer's web site.
That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot from that and run the
diagnostics. You may need to replace the hard drive. If under warranty
contact Dell tech support.

Btw, it's not a good idea to post your new issue as a reply to someone
else's thread. For one thing it looks like the problem the other poster had
is different than yours. In general it's best to post a new message and if
you feel it's needed quote a previous thread in the body of your new
message.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response, Rock. As for posting to the wrong thread -- my
apologies. I thought I had the same problem, i.e. XP wouldn't delete
partitions so I could re-install. So I wondered if the original poster's
problem was solved.

As to your suggestion ... I can do that, although I only have one operable
system -- a Mac -- so I'm not sure that the CD creation will work. I'm
traveling (actually on an island) and don't have access to other systems.
I'm running Tiger 10.4 on the Mac and most cross-system stuff works, but some
doesn't.

I suspect that the drive is okay, though. Prior to attempting the
re-installation, I put the drive into an external enclosure, hooked it to the
Mac and was able to copy over critical directories. Now that I've done a
FORMAT C: I assume that's no longer the case.

So, if it's not a hardware problem, any clues as to why XP refuses to delete
the partition would be much appreciated.

BTW the machine is out of warranty. Dell technical support was helpful to a
point -- more than I had a right to expect, so no complaints there (but also
no solution).

Thanks!

Was the original problem ever resolved?

I have a Dell laptop upon which I'm attempting to reinstall XP Home SP2
from
the Dell
Reinstallation CD. I am having a very similar problem. I boot from the
CD
and get to the "Welcome to Setup" screen. I select "set up Windows XP
now"
and when I get to the
"Setup" screen (after accepting the license (F*)) I see the following
partition list:

-: Partition 1 [FAT] 47 MB ( 39 MB
free)
C: Partition2 [Unknown] 34562 MB ( 34561 MB free)
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 3538 MB ( 468 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB

If I select Partition2 and attempt to set up XP by pressing Enter, I get
the
error message "An error occurred while Setu was updating partition
information on:
38155 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]. Setup cannot continue."

If I attempt to delete Partition2 (or Partition3 for that matter) by
selecting it and
pressing 'D', I get "the partition you selected cannot be deleted".

I have booted into the Recovery Console and FORMATted C: but still the
same
result.
CHKDSK reports 'okay' but when forced with the '/p' parameter, it reports
unrecoverable errors. This is true for C: and E:. Using PARTDISK gets me
the same
results (as I expected).

I'm really getting frustrated. Am posting this from my MacBook and am
seriously
close to abandoning Windows altogether. Please help!

Download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive manufacturer's web site.
That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot from that and run the
diagnostics. You may need to replace the hard drive. If under warranty
contact Dell tech support.

Btw, it's not a good idea to post your new issue as a reply to someone
else's thread. For one thing it looks like the problem the other poster had
is different than yours. In general it's best to post a new message and if
you feel it's needed quote a previous thread in the body of your new
message.

 

[Rock]

Thanks for the response, Rock. As for posting to the wrong thread -- my
apologies. I thought I had the same problem, i.e. XP wouldn't delete
partitions so I could re-install. So I wondered if the original poster's
problem was solved.

As to your suggestion ... I can do that, although I only have one operable
system -- a Mac -- so I'm not sure that the CD creation will work. I'm
traveling (actually on an island) and don't have access to other systems.
I'm running Tiger 10.4 on the Mac and most cross-system stuff works, but
some
doesn't.

I suspect that the drive is okay, though. Prior to attempting the
re-installation, I put the drive into an external enclosure, hooked it to
the
Mac and was able to copy over critical directories. Now that I've done a
FORMAT C: I assume that's no longer the case.

So, if it's not a hardware problem, any clues as to why XP refuses to
delete
the partition would be much appreciated.

BTW the machine is out of warranty. Dell technical support was helpful to
a
point -- more than I had a right to expect, so no complaints there (but
also
no solution).

Thanks!

Was the original problem ever resolved?

I have a Dell laptop upon which I'm attempting to reinstall XP Home SP2
from
the Dell
Reinstallation CD. I am having a very similar problem. I boot from
the
CD
and get to the "Welcome to Setup" screen. I select "set up Windows XP
now"
and when I get to the
"Setup" screen (after accepting the license (F*)) I see the following
partition list:

-: Partition 1 [FAT] 47 MB ( 39
MB
free)
C: Partition2 [Unknown] 34562 MB ( 34561 MB free)
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 3538 MB ( 468 MB
free)
Unpartitioned space 8 MB

If I select Partition2 and attempt to set up XP by pressing Enter, I
get
the
error message "An error occurred while Setu was updating partition
information on:
38155 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]. Setup cannot
continue."

If I attempt to delete Partition2 (or Partition3 for that matter) by
selecting it and
pressing 'D', I get "the partition you selected cannot be deleted".

I have booted into the Recovery Console and FORMATted C: but still the
same
result.
CHKDSK reports 'okay' but when forced with the '/p' parameter, it
reports
unrecoverable errors. This is true for C: and E:. Using PARTDISK gets
me
the same
results (as I expected).

I'm really getting frustrated. Am posting this from my MacBook and am
seriously
close to abandoning Windows altogether. Please help!

Download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive manufacturer's web
site.
That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot from that and run the
diagnostics. You may need to replace the hard drive. If under warranty
contact Dell tech support.

Btw, it's not a good idea to post your new issue as a reply to someone
else's thread. For one thing it looks like the problem the other poster
had
is different than yours. In general it's best to post a new message and
if
you feel it's needed quote a previous thread in the body of your new
message.

You wrote that chkdsk is reporting unrecoverable errors. Your next step is
to try the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. After running the
diagnostics if it checks out ok use their zero fill utility to zero out the
drive.