reformat existing harddrive with xp on it?

[halvey99]

sorry im by no means a computer genuis.. but is there anyway to delete/reformat my hard drive with xp on it.. if so how would i go about doing it?

 

[halvey99]

anyone ?

 

[Swanny]

It depends what you want to do later. If you format the drive, you'll lose the OS. If you're reinstalling the OS, just boot the OS disk in, restart, and delete the partition when it prompts you (a ways into the setup process).

 

[piasabird]

XP Writes some info to the beginning of the hard drive so it can tell that XP is already on it. Win2k/NT may also do this sort of thing.

So if you want to get rid of it download a utility from the drive manufacturer to write zeros to the front part of the drive, so you can start over. After you do that you can Partition and reformat the drive.

 

[halvey99]

im still having problems... the goal is to completely get rid of whats left on my hard drive so i can start over. i tried the reinstall os thing.. but that doesnt work.. unless i messed something up on the way as for dl something off of maxtors webpage.. i cant seem to find what im looking for.. any other suggestions.. is there anyway to do it in command prompt?

 

[Matthias99]

You can format your drive from a boot disk (although creating one is a pain in ME/XP/2K). However, you shouldn't *need* to do this if you want to reinstall Windows -- just start the installation as normal, and then remove your existing partition when you get to the partitioning step. Windows should reinstall cleanly from there.

 

[halvey99]

k i tried to install xp over.. and it wont let me delete the partition that xp is already on. the partition that xp happens to be on is my harddrive which is full.. so i cant really partition it agian. anyone have any other suggestions that is gonna save me from going to the store and buying a new hard drive

 

[halvey99]

last call for help before i hit the sack?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: halvey99
sorry im by no means a computer genuis.. but is there anyway to delete/reformat my hard drive with xp on it.. if so how would i go about doing it?

if you wish to delete it all..goto bootdisk.com ..