Formating the C drive

I have installed Windows XP and I now want to start over but Windows XP will not let me format the C drive. Any suggestions?

 

Format using a Win 9X startup disk and proceed as you would with any other opperating system.

 

If the installation CD, boot from that CD. Somewhere in the setup process, they will ask you if you wish to format the partition, just say Yes.

 

Using the win98 Start up disk still wouldn't let me format.

Thanks anyway.

 

Safest/easiest is to use XP setup or the XP recovery console (probably easier to follow) to blow away the NTFS drive and then you can run fdisk and then format.

For details on starting and using recovery console, look in your start~help section. Complete, detailed information there.

Or you can use XP setup or the recovery console to remove the NTFS patition(s) and create a new (unformatted) partition and then exit. You can then format from your Win98 disk without needing to fdisk.

If you choose the latter (and it would be my choice) then after you get Win98 reinstalled, you will want to remove some hidden files from c:\ that were created when you used XP to set up the new partition (drive).

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
BOOTSECT.DOS
BOOT.INI

 

Use the winXP installation CD and boot from there.