I want to reformat 98SE system drive...

[digitald]

I have 2 separate drives on my PC (not partitions of one drive, but 2 hard drives). The PC originally had 98SE on the C drive (it's currently labeled "SYSTEM" in "My Computer"). Music data files were on the D drive (labeled "Local" in "My Computer").

I recently did a clean install of WinXP on the D drive, reformatting it as NTFS (I no longer needed the music data files). I was going to install XP on the C Drive, but was unsure as the instructions warned me that I was about to install a 2nd OS on a drive with an existing OS, which it said could cause malfunctions. So, being a novice, I chose to install XP on the 2nd drive instead.

Right now, when I boot the PC, it asks which system I want to boot (WinXP or "Windows" it says, meaning 98SE I presume). If I don't select either one, it automatically boots XP, which is what I want anyhow.

I don't need anything on the C drive containing 98SE. Can I reformat the C drive using XP's reformat (right clicking on C drive in My Computer and clicking on reformat) w/o messing anything up? I didn't change anything physically before I installed XP on the D drive (I see some posts talking about master & slave, jumpers and the like -- terms I'm only vaguely familiar with).

In XP's "My Computer," if I look under System Tasks & click "View System Information," it says that the D drive is the System drive. But I don't know if it's doing that because XP is booted or if it actually sees the D drive as the System drive -- even though the C drive still has the physical label of "System" in "My Computer."

So if I reformat the C drive to NTFS format, erasing everything on it, will the D drive with XP on it be OK and still work properly? Thanks.

Digital D

[Cricket]

Get KillDisk to zero out your hard drives and start over.

Cricket

[edfair]

This is a suspicion only, since I've not done that combination, but reformatting the C: will probably eliminate the boot loader that is giving you the choice. This would force a reload of XP.

[rcvalencia9]

When you install a second OS over an older OS. It will just update the system files. You should first zero fill/out the drive to install OS. It will eliminate the boot loaders obviously. You can't reformat a drive running the OS. The first thing you should do right now is to zero fill/out the hard disk and then use FDISK then install the OS you want. When you install and reinstall OSes that will create some problems. You should zero fill/out it first just like Cricket have said.

[glc]

You do not want to use FDISK unless you are going to install Win9x/ME. If you are installing 2K/XP the CD setup will partition and format a zeroed out drive for you.

[digitald]

Thanks for all your instructions & advice!

Digital D