Deleting partitions

[snidy1]

I have a drive set up into 4 partitions, I only want 2. When I do a fresh install of Windows XP home, I delete the partitions, but it won't let me create only 2. Do I have to use Fdisk?

 

[rutchtkim]

if u want to do a fresh install, best thing to do is:
1. fdisk
2. delete all partitions
3. create 2 partitions
4. format the partitions
5. install XP on C

 

[Lord Evermore]

You should not use fdisk and format. You can't make an NTFS partition that way.

What do you mean you can't create "only 2"? Does it let you make 3 or 4 or 5 partitions after you delete the existing ones? Can you create a single partition? If you delete the existing partitions, then reboot and go into setup, does it still show them?

If you boot to the CD and then go to the Recovery Console, and use the "diskpart" command to change partitions. Choose to repair a WinXP installation when you get to the menu, to get to the recovery console. You may need to enter the administrator password to get into it.

 

[snidy1]

It's four partitions now, I want only two, I delete all but one pertition, because it has important files on it, but when I try to create new partitions it won't let me turn the three into one. Do I need to delete all four for it to work?

 

[Lord Evermore]

After you delete the 3 extra partitions, you should have free space after the 1 partition, and you can create one partition using all of the free space. If the space is larger than 32GB your only option will be to use NTFS. You can't just convert the 3 partitions into one. What exactly happens when you try to do this? Are there error messages or anything?

 

[snidy1]

When I delete them they still show up as three drives. I am using NTFS.

 

[snidy1]

Does it matter that I had Linux on one of the partitions before, even though I formated it with NTFS after I got rid of it?

 

[authenticate]

Have you tried deleting the partitions from control panels -> computer management -> disk management (or something like that)?
I had three partitions, deleted two and created a new one in the same space all from within XP.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I was going on the presumption of this being done during setup. Authenticate is right, if you have XP freshly installed on the one partition you want to keep, then you can just use XP's Disk Management to delete and create other partitions.

Linux having been on one partition shouldn't cause any problems with you deleting the partitions, as long as they can be seen by XP. If you're going through the setup process and reach the point that it asks you what partition to use or allows you to change partitions, and I think you highlight it and hit D to delete, then press L to verify the deletion, does it return to the list of partitions and still show the partition you just deleted?