Formating Problem

[OldTimer]

My Althon self built has run like a clock for a year but crashed yesterday without much warning. I am running XP Pro. I have reformatted the D: drive partition but can't reformat the C: drive partition. When I hit Format C: it starts to format but an error message comes up immediately saying a "Process" is running and asks if I want to "dismount" the process and I hit "Y" but it still will not format the drive. I have hit Ctrl Alt Del and tried to delet any running processes but no help. What do I need to do to format the C: dirve?

[macko72]

Are you trying to reformat C: and you are loged on, windows will never alow you to do that, if you would like to start from scrach put in windows XP CD restart and begin Setup and in windows setup you will be able to format or delete partitions!!!

[Markoman01027]

The format utility only works with FAT32 partitions.

[OldTimer]

How do you format a non Fat 32 partitiion?

[TeenPcknowit]

Originally Posted by Markoman01027 The format utility only works with FAT32 partitions.

That can't be right. When I re-format my drive I always use the XP pro install CD to format my NTFS partition,

[OldTimer]

I sure can't find a way to format the C: drive with NTFS .

[Panama Red]

You can't format the C: from within XP. If you want to wipe it out, boot to the XP CD, select new installation. When it finds a previous installation, it will offer a repair option, select New installation. When it displays the partitions available, Delete the partition. This will effectively remove everything. Then proceed with the new installation and format the drive/partition prior to the XP install.

[OldTimer]

When load the XP Pro CD it finds the 2 upgrade and can't proceed - can I delete the upgrade or windows and reformat?

[Panama Red]

Yes, just delete the existing partitions. You're going to lose everything on that drive remember.

[OldTimer]

You are dealing with the villiage idiot__ how do delete the partitions?

[Panama Red]

On the install screen when it lists the existing XP installations and the various partitions/drives, it should give you instructions to Create a partition, Delete a partiton, etc. It's a multi-step process. This may help too.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313348

[OldTimer]

When I click on the "Setup" option I get a message "Setup can not continue you have a newer version of Windows the on the CD" . I am trying to find a way to delete the SP2 upgrade so I can format but still no luck. The article you recommended is great but apparently applies to the origina version of XP. I appreciate your help but I am still stuck trying to reformat which used to be an easy job.

[Panama Red]

Ok, here's another way. Pull the hard drive and put it in another machine running XP as a slave. Then format it from there.