Hard Drive Prep For Xp Pro Re-installation

[pmaddock]

Formum members,

I have had nothing but blue screens on bootup lately into my XP Pro system and have decided to do a format and fresh install of XP Pro. I want to wipe everything off my current hard drive which houses both XP and windows 98se. I have 4 partitions on this 120 GB WD hard drive:

1. Current XP partition
2. Current Windows 98SE partition - operating system
3. Current Windows 98SE data storing partition
4. Unallocated disk space in a fourth partition

What is the best way to wipe the slate clean and start over with a fresh install of WinXP PRO only. Should I use WD Lifeguard utilities to write zeroes to the entire hard disk and then use DOS to fdisk and format the hard disk fat32. I can then bootup to the XP Pro disk, set up new partitions (one for the OS and one for data), and install the operating system. Or would doing fdisk and format and xp install clean the disk enough without having to write zeroes. Or should I let the WinXP disk do everything - delete my partitions, set up new partition space, and install the operating system. What do you all think. I have not done this for awhile and want to do a thorugh job to get my system back as smooth as it used to be, especially on bootup.

PMADDOCK

[fatboyjim]

If your XP partition is NTFS then FDISK won't see it and therefore won't be able to delete it, so that's out of the window

You could either write zeroes to the drive, although that takes a bloody long time for big drives.

Or you could get a copy of Partition Magic and wipe out all partitions from a floppy disk

Up to you really

Jim

[raftero]

i would let xp disk format and install,i dont think you need to use wd lifeguard but it wouldn't hurt anything if you choose to and it would check your hd at the same time(at least maxtor does)i haven't used WD.like i said this is what i would do ,might not be the best way.

[ogrerocks]

When you go to re-install (booting from the CD), it will give you the option to reformat the entire disk.

[pmaddock]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I can let XP take care of everything. I may or may not do the zero thing first, which as the one gentleman mentioned would take an extremely long time on a 120 gig hard disk. It would check out my disk though, which is probably a good thing. Are there any WD Lifeguard experts out there? How long might a 120 gig hard drive take to zero? Also, do you have the option to check the disk and zero it at the same time?

PMAD

[fatboyjim]

120GB you are looking at -roughly- 6 mins per Gig I believe, which is roughly 12 hours! You are looking at at least 8 hours though

The drive test only takes 90 seconds and you don't need to zero fill to run that

Stick that in and run the drive test, then pull out the floppy from the drive, stick the XP CD in, restart and let it format the entire drive..

Good luck, HTH

Jim

[pmaddock]

Thanks for the advice. I will use the utility to check it only, not zero the drive (since it takes 12 hours). I will then let XP disk take over from there. If I have any more problems, I can do the zero thing at last resort. Thanks again.

PMAD

[pmaddock]

Forum,

I decided to go ahead and zero my hard drive anyhow. It only took about an hour using WD's Lifeguard utility. I then booted up to WinXP PRO cd, created a partition, let XP full format and install the os. I then formatted the rest of the partition with XP disk management, installed and updated the rest of my drivers, and I'm back in business. I have already done all of Windows and IE's updates and will be ready tomorrow to start adding back my software. Thanks for everyone help and suggestions.

PMAD

[fatboyjim]

Fine, make me look like an idiot then!

I said around 8-12 hours because it takes at least 2 and a half hours to do my 20 gig (but I forgot that mine's a 5400 RPM)

Good to hear you got it sorted.

Jim

[pmaddock]

Sorry that It only took an hour to zero my hard drive. Hopefully, you were kidding about feeling like an idiot. I fully expected that it would take all night to zero my hard drive, and was pleasantly surprised when it only took an hour. I guess the fast drive makes a huge difference. Thanks for the help. I am definitely back running again, smoother than ever (so far, knock on wood).

PMAD