Reformatting a partition of my hard drive and installing XP

just go to my computer
right-click on C drive and click format

Sunray

Also check here

http://pcsupport.about.com/library/weekly/aa082602a.htm

Sunray

Check this windows xp installation links

http://www.aumha.org/a/xpupgrad.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941

http://www.pro-networks.org/XPMaNiA/install.shtml

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/winxp/upgradexp/index.htm



Sunray

Just Pop in the Windows XP  CD and when the restart the computer and slect from the boot menu (cd rom) and then the cd will guide you in the formatting and installing

but I only want to reformat one drive. the cd doesn't tell me how to do that and keep the stuff on the D drive from getting erased.

it will give you the option of which drive you wanna format or install on

C:\ won't format in windows. Someone else just told me that so right clicking and telling it to format C won't work there.

I'm going to try to boot to the cd again and see if it asks me which drive I want to format. Thanks.

Sunray, I have one more question and I hope you are still here.

I just tried to follow your instructions with the cd but when I got to the screen where it recognized that I had 2 partitions, it gave me 3 options. None of them sound right. I could choose
1) Enter to setup Windows on selected partition
2) C to create a partition on unused space
3) D to delete partition

I tried to choose D because I want to reformat the main drive, (the C drive) but a warning page came up that said there is probably important information on the C drive that I don't want to delete. Wellllllllll... I didn't really want to delete it anyway, I just want to wash it clean. So I chose to ESC and cancel what I was doing.

So is deleting the C drive the same as Formatting it? I would need to get it back again in order to install XP so deleting it would not be right would it? So how the blazes do I format it?

There is a bit more to it..........when you boot to the cd it will ask you where you want to install.......it will also give you the option to delete a partition....delete the "C" ,  it will then give you the option create a new partition in the unused space....do so, making it the same size as your previous "C"  then boot back into the OS on "D" and go to disk management and format.

Another  way to do this is to boot to a boot disk that contains Fdisk and use Fdisk to reformat.........
Best way is to  get a copy of Partition Magic and just resize your partitions.

I was following you fine unti this:

then boot back into the OS on "D" and go to disk management and format.

Exactly, how do I do that? How to land on D and where is disk management and then how to format...

If , as you say in your question, you have installed XP on the D drive, you should be able to boot into it.....once you are at your desktop, go to start/settings/control panel/administrative tools/computer management......and when you are at that window, choose disk management in the file tree on the left.  Then, highlight the c drive, right click and select format.

No, I do not have XP installed on D drive. I'm still running ME. I can't do anything until I clean off C and put XP on it. (I don't know what that means for the D drive. All I know is I need to keep D cuz that is where all my pictures and my documents are currently stored.) It is FULL though, I cannot put XP on it as the pie graph shows it to be more than 3/4 full with 4.50 GB left out of 22.3 GB total. I am fine with leaving ME as the OS on D; at least for now till I can move my stuff back to C.

Heather, is ME on the C drive or the D drive?

JConchie:
ME is on both drives currently, until I get this done.

rustyrpage:
You made that sound easy. I'm going to print those instructions and try it.

Will let you all know how this turns out. Wish me luck! Thank you so much for the help!

Heather

It is easy.  Why do you have XP on both drives?

I don't. Oh heck, all I know is I have ME and it's a pain in the butt. I WANT to have XP run both drives.

From what I assumed all that was on the d: drive is data...is that correct?  You said that ME was on both...unless you literally did a dual boot of ME with one on D:, then only the C: drive should have ME...in which case you will be able to do what I told you & preserve what is on the D: drive.

The only thing that I would suggest though would be to finish the install, then move all of the data on the D: drive over to the C: drive & then either format the D: drive as NTFS, or eliminate it & make the C: drive the full drive...whichever one is better.

To be quite honest though, for redundancy & ease of failure recovery, I always use a second hard drive only for my data & put all my programs on the C: drive.  I just picked up an 80gb w/8mb cache for 80 bucks...you can get 20 gb drives for like 30 bucks.  An insvestment well worth it in my opinion.

Yes, data is all that's on D (as far as I know). My computer friend loaded ME a year ago and partitioned the drives for me just so I could store stuff on the other one. I thought this meant that ME was on both? I guess that's not what it means... Don't both hard drives need an OS? I don't have XP installed yet so doesn't that mean that ME is on both?

No...the only hard drive that needs the OS is the primary drive.  Your D: drive just has data...to verify, go to the D: drive & see if there is a Windows folder.  The D: drive is just a data drive that is accessible through ME...yes, but it isn't ME loaded.  You could take the drive out & plug it into a Windows 2000 computer & access it.

Just format the C: drive & when you boot up you will realize that you have the D: drive still and that it is going fine.

If you don't feel safe doing this, I would suggest hiring someone to do it.

They shouldn't charge too much....I would say 100 dollars or so to get it going for you.

I think I understand now. Thanks for the additional info. I feel comfortable giving it a shot now. I will definitely let you know how it went! :-)

Heather

I think we have all managed to confuse each other  :-)

But after a careful re-read, all you really need to do is start ME then when you are at the desktop, insert the XP cd and follow the instructions to upgrade me to XP.

The end result is that ME will be gone, You will have XP on the C drive  (you don't need an OS on both drives) all your Data will be safe on D and, most of all you will still be able to run all your applications...which wouldn't happen if you follow RustyPages first suggestion.......doing it that way would wipe out all your applications and you would have to reinstall them.

Before you do anything, right click on "My Computer" go to "properties" and select the "hardware" tab and click on the"device manager" button.....in device manager, expand the file tree and take notes of what kind of sound card, video card, network adapter,etc that you have..........once you install XP, you *might* have to go to the manufacturer's website and download new XP drivers for some of these.

Whoa...don't do that!  ME to XP is not a Microsoft recommended upgrade.

If you follow the formatting procedure that I outlined, you will have a clean copy of XP without any problems.

"Not recommended by MS"..........but works all the same......(By the way Rusty, it is the ME to W2K path that is really problematic.)....A clean install of any OS is always best.....but it does mean reinstalling all your applications...........Many people, including me, have done successful upgrades from ME to XP.  

Just curious but why are you deleting the C partition and not just format it?  In the XP setup you can select the C partition and then format as NTFS or leave as FAT32 on the next screen.  Would have still had a clean C Drive then.  

You may be right Stoner....I wasn't positive as to whether or not you had to delete it or not first..but I am sure that you can just format it as NTFS right away.

I am sorry it took so long to get back here and post this. The dirtections that rustyrpage gave me worked perfectly with no problems at all. It was fast, clean and easy and I appreciate the help so very much. Now I just gotta figure out how to give out these point thingies on this site! Thanks all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather