Help to remove partition from a used HDD

[vsfoxe]

Old HDD has a partition on it (in old PC it was C and E). Now it has (oops!) Windows XP on both C and D. I want to completely format entire HDD, with NO partitions to reload an OS and be Drive C for a neighbor. I have downloaded gparted-live-0.4.1-2.iso and burned it onto a CD. I'm headed back to the gparted website to read up, but am I headed in the right direction? or lost. I only know enough to be dangerous, but I can read. TIA

Is there a better way? I looked at the old floppy which came with the HDD originally (thinking to write 0's or 1's), but it doesn't work with NTFS. Is there anything to help on the Western Digital site?

 

[Rike]

Just delete the partitions during an XP install and do a complete format. It's worked for me just fine in the past.

 

[Denithor]

Bingo.

During XP setup you will see a list of all partitions on the drive. Just delete all of them (will have to press "L" to confirm at least on the main partition) and then format the unpartitioned space with NTFS (do the full format, not the quick method, to overwrite the whole drive).

 

[SickBeast]

If you use Gparted, it's really easy.

You just boot up the CD. From there, after a few simple steps, you'll be in the program. You need to chose the hard disk, then you can do whatever you need to. Keep in mind that sometimes it will take forever, especially if you're resizing a partition or formatting something.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you have "undeleteable" parititions (like Dell EISA partitions in some cases) that Disk Management won't delete, you can also boot to the XP or Vista Recovery Console and run "diskpart.exe". Basically, you set the drive you want to work on, set the partition you want to work on, and delete the partition. You may have to use the "OverRide" option (i.e. "Delete partition override") if it's a hidden partition and can't be deleted.

 

[vsfoxe]

Everyone, thanks for the help. It was easy using info offered here. Much appreciated!