winXP help please

[edm]

The other night I upgraded to XP pro from win98, I simply upgraded (not a clean install). But I now want to do a format clean install.

1) do I want to use NTFS or FAT32, I'm currently using FAT32, but I'm not familiar with NTFS or if I should use it.

2) How the heck do I go about formatting my C: drive? I created a floppy disk (to boot to dos), but running the format command does not work.

I appreciate your help as always. thanks

Ed

 

[BlueWeasel]

(1) Use FAT32 over NTFS
NTFS has additional security measures (that your really don't need), and there is little or no performance difference between the two systems. For personal use, FAT32 is the way to go. Remember, if you ever go back to Win9x, it can only access FAT32 partitions. Another reason to stick with FAT32.

(2) No need to format C: before you start the clean install
WinXP/Win2000 give you the option of formatting the C:\ drive at the beginning of the clean install. So therefore, you don't need to do anything, really. You don't need to boot from the startup floppy you made and format there.

Make sure you have set to boot from the CDROM in your BIOS, stick in the WinXP CD, reboot, and the installation process should start right up.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[edm]

this didn't work, I selected a clean install and it gave me three options, 1) to repair my current install, 2) to do a clean install on the current partition (which when I select, tells me this will install multiple OS's on the same partition and is not recommended of coarse) or 3) to delete the current partition (but when I select this it says it can not because some files are in use)

Is there a way to just format c: and go from there? I tried using my old win98 floppy but it tells me its the wrong MS-DOS version.

 

[TheSick]

You want to clean install ... create a boot disk (hopefully you have a win9x machine) with fdisk on it. Boot your XP machine with that, and destroy the current XP partition. Then try a clean XP install again.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Humm...I know the Win2K setup gives you the option to format the primary drive at the beginning of the install. Its been awhile since I last installed XP, and I assume the setup procedures were the same.

If you are having problems creating a bootdisk, download a Win98 startup disk from this site

 

[edm]

Fdisk worked using my win98 boot disk. Only thing was is when I created the new partition and formatted during the XP install the only option I had was to use NTFS, no FAT32 option. I assume to set-up FAT32 I needed to create the partition and format with the win98 boot disk (before installing XP). Anyway, I just used the NTFS, seems good so far. And if I ever want to go back to 98 or FAT32 and can always just fdisk again.

thanks for the help

 

[bsobel]

NTFS has additional security measures (that your really don't need), and there is little or no performance difference between the two systems. For personal use, FAT32 is the way to go. Remember, if you ever go back to Win9x, it can only access FAT32 partitions. Another reason to stick with FAT32.

Bad advice. NTFS is MUCH more stable and resilant to damage that FAT32 (things like the machine locking up or the power failing). Unless you're pretty sure you might want to go back there is NO reason to run FAT32 (FAT should die a horrible death, not be kept on life support)

Bill

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: bsobel

NTFS has additional security measures (that your really don't need), and there is little or no performance difference between the two systems. For personal use, FAT32 is the way to go. Remember, if you ever go back to Win9x, it can only access FAT32 partitions. Another reason to stick with FAT32.

Bad advice. NTFS is MUCH more stable and resilant to damage that FAT32 (things like the machine locking up or the power failing). Unless you're pretty sure you might want to go back there is NO reason to run FAT32 (FAT should die a horrible death, not be kept on life support)

Bill

I'm with Bill. Use NTFS. There are tons of reasons but the #1 reason is that it's a journaling file system and knows when writes dont complete. (notice how NT/2000/XP don't run a scandisk/checkdisk after a crash most of the time while Windows 9x/Me do everytime?)

If you feel more comfortable, use FAT32 during the setup and use the "convert" utility afterwards to switch to NTFS.

 

[pcmax]

I third that, definately go NTFS. It performs much better or I should say degrades very little as you fill up your hard drive compared to FAT32. As far as going back to Win98, you won't want to.