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If I format a secondary harddrive in WinXP, does it remove the mbr on it?

watdahel

watdahel

Golden Member
That's what I did to my second harddrive so I can use it as additional storage. However, when I decided to use the drive as a primary drive and installed winXP, I wasn't able to install. I had to do a low level format before the installation worked.
 
A secondary drive usually only needs to be formatted - period. When you made it a primary drive that change everything. It then has to have a MBR which it didn't have before.
 
How come during winXP installation, it formats the drive but the installation never finishes. So this formatting doesn't do anything.
 
Can't tell you why, but my suggestion would be, during the first part of the setup process, to remove all existing partitions on that drive, then re-create and have it do the quick format in NTFS.

Hope that helps.
 
when u format the second hdd, did u format it with a primery partition or as an extended partition with a logical partition on it?
 
i'm not sure but i think thet in winxp any new format of a secondery hdd defults to an extended partition
 
No it doesn't - you can try this yourself. The default is always Primary, unless you have >4 partitions already in which case you'll be prompted to created an extended with logical partitions in it.

Can't remember how that applies if it's a dynamic disk though as normal rules don't apply there generally...
 
dynamic disk 😕 have u seen a system with dynamic disk configured on purpose 🙂
/edit
if u define a new partition on a hdd that have a primery partition it will defults to an extended partition (talking from experience), not sure about an empty one
 
So when I formatted the slave drive in winXP, it removes the mbr or something else which prevented it from being used as a primary drive? Is that what you're saying?

I tried installing an OS at least 10 times with this particular drive and had the installer format the drive as well, but each time the installation never completed. It told me it failed loading the OS.

Like I mentioned, I used Maxtor's utility to do a low-level format(zeros every bit) and that fixed the installation problem.
 
The MBR on a hard drive only contains information about the 4 primary partitions and a small boot program that initiates the computer's boot process. Partitioning a drive will likely change the configuration for the primary partitions on the drive which will change the MBR. Formatting a partition will do nothing to the MBR.

XP always defaults to a primary partition on an unpartitioned drive.

if u define a new partition on a hdd that have a primery partition it will defults to an extended partition (talking from experience),
Click to expand...

Obviously, since you can only have one DOS primary partition on a drive. If you already have one, you can only have an extended partition, making it logical to default to that.

Also, to the original poster. You did not low level format your drive. It is no longer possible for a user to perform such a task on a modern hard drive. What you did was run a zero-fill which is not the same thing.
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
if u define a new partition on a hdd that have a primery partition it will defults to an extended partition (talking from experience),
Click to expand...

Obviously, ....
Click to expand...

if u read the thread u would understand why the obvious had to be sad, but is't ok if u'r lazy 😉
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
Also, to the original poster. You did not low level format your drive. It is no longer possible for a user to perform such a task on a modern hard drive. What you did was run a zero-fill which is not the same thing.
Click to expand...

it is possible with certain hdd (with utility from the orignal hdd manufacturer)
 
Originally posted by: kobymu
Originally posted by: Pariah
Also, to the original poster. You did not low level format your drive. It is no longer possible for a user to perform such a task on a modern hard drive. What you did was run a zero-fill which is not the same thing.
Click to expand...

it is possible with certain hdd (with utility from the orignal hdd manufacturer)
Click to expand...


The low level format utility that some hard drive manufacturers offer is just a zero-fill utility. It is NOT a low-level format utility. Don't know why they call it that.
 
Originally posted by: Green Man
The low level format utility that some hard drive manufacturers offer is just a zero-fill utility. It is NOT a low-level format utility. Don't know why they call it that.
Click to expand...

IBM HDD had low-level format utility AND zero-fill (but that was 3 years ago 😱 )

/edit
and some old scsi controllers too
 
Originally posted by: lansalot
where and most importantly WHY?
Click to expand...

On my own boxes where I have employed software raid. It's a prerequisite.
Click to expand...

hooo that 😉

seriously now, exept from software raid, can u think of a good reason to implement a dynamic disk?

 
Originally posted by: erwin1978
That's what I did to my second harddrive so I can use it as additional storage. However, when I decided to use the drive as a primary drive and installed winXP, I wasn't able to install. I had to do a low level format before the installation worked.
Click to expand...
Was this a brand new empty drive before formating?

 
Originally posted by: erwin1978 was my question ever answered? i think not
Click to expand...

original question (topic)
If I format a secondary harddrive in WinXP, does it remove the mbr
Click to expand...
No (it may delete or alter it depending on the format/partition u performed)

if that is not clear please post clarified question
Originally posted by: erwin1978
That's what I did to my second harddrive so I can use it as additional storage. However, when I decided to use the drive as a primary drive and installed winXP, I wasn't able to install. I had to do a low level format before the installation worked.
Click to expand...


u cannot "remove" a master boot record (mbr) just write/delete (and rewrite) it.

bottom line (or 2)
Hdd cannot be prevented from beeing a primery Hdd (provided the hdd is operational).
u just didn't formatted / partitioned it correctly (for the o/s to install proporly).
 
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