Quick formatting question.

[Xion]

I am using winxp:

I have 2 drives, C: and D:, when I try to format from a startup disk in dos. I type format c: and it formats my d: drive. I want to format my c: not d:, how do I format c: drive when that drive letter is being used by d:?

Pretty weird?

[lil Jimmie]

In XP you should be able to format the disk with Disk Management.

[Xion]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie In XP you should be able to format the disk with Disk Management.

It doesn't allow me to, it says that c: drive is the main drive and I can't format.

[lil Jimmie]

Are you reinstalling XP? If so boot to the CD and then format and reinstall.

[Xion]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie Are you reinstalling XP? If so boot to the CD and then format and reinstall.

Lol, no, I just want a clean boot.

[lil Jimmie]

Originally posted by Xion Lol, no, I just want a clean boot.

Clean boot of what?

[Xion]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie Clean boot of what?

The drive I want to format (boot) is c:.

[lil Jimmie]

It has been awhile since I have used Fdisk, but when you have two HDD you have an option to switch between the two HDD while using Fdisk.

[Xion]

This is really only my first time attempting to format because my PC is sort of messed. A couple of viruses loose and I can't shut down!

This is what I do:

- Insert the startup disk into A:
- Restart and wait till the startup options appear
- Then I type sys to make backups of DOS and other required files to start up
- Then I type format c: but instead it formats my d: drive (not the drive I wanted to format, c: drive is what I want)


- My question is:

What drive letter do I use then? format x?

Where x is the drive letter.

[lpc300]

Hi Xion,

Couple of questions. Have you Fdisked yet? lil Jimmie is right, option 5 in the Fdisk dialogue lets you swtich disks. If you have XP formatted with NTFS, I don't think DOS will let you format until you've fdisked it.

Try this. Insert your startup disk. Once you get the A>, type fdisk. Type Y for large disk support. Type 3 to delete a partition. Chose the number that corresponds to the type of partition you have. If your not sure, try each to see what comes up. Delete the partition(s) you want. You're going to need to reboot, keeping the startup disk in, obviously. Go back to Fdisk and create the partitions you want (option 1). Use option 5 to change disks. Once you have finished with fdisk, reboot again, keeping the starup disk in. Now you can format.

Remember: IN DOING THIS YOU WILL BE DELETING YOUR ENTIRE HARDDRIVE, LOSING ALL YOUR DATA. DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED FOR THAT (sorry about the caps).

Hope this helps.

[RJ]

As said, boot from the Windows XP CD and format and reinstall Windows.

Forget bootdisk and dos and etc. You probably choose NTFS file system for C:, and that is not supported by FDISK.

Anyway, you have to re-install Windows after you format, because when you format the hard drive is empty, so go ahead with the WinXP CD.

RJ

[Xion]

Great, thanks, that should help me out a bit.

EDIT: On windows, is there a way to reinstall Win Xp freshly with all my previous files gone? Thanks.

[RJ]

Yep. Boot with the Windows XP CD. When it asks you where to install, choose to format the current WinXP installation. Then the files will be gone and you can continue to install Windows XP on a clean partition.

RJ