Problems Formatting

Hi Guys,
I recently decided to take a quantum leap....LOL and say 'farewell' to 98se, move into the future??? and install XP Pro - I didn't anticipate any dramas.

My PC has 2 HDDs - 40gb (part 10/30) and 80gb (20/60) so I moved all wanted data to the 80gb drive and loaded the XP Pro disk - so far so good.
My intention was to load XP on to the 10gb partition (Fat32) and keep the other drives as they were.

My problems started when the XP disk wanted to keep formatting ALL partitons when I really only wanted the first drive done.

I was of the opinion that I could leave the 98se Fat32 file system on the second drive and access it as normal. Would this work if I disconnected the 80g drive until the OS was loaded? I have a massive amount of data on the second drive and backups would be a major PIA.

I know you guys can help,
TIA
Den

 

It would be a good idea to remove the 80gb drive (just to be safe) and it would limit Windows choices for installation. If you don't need to save anything on the 40gb disk... boot the WinXP cd, follow the prompts for an installation, then 'delete' the partitions on that disk and then have XP create and format a new one or two. Here's some extra information for a WinXP clean install that may be of use.

B

 

Read the information on the blue installation pages more carefully. I'm reasonably certain that you misunderstood. The installation program offers to do whatever you wish, but you needn't do any formatting at all if you don't need to.

There's also no reason to remove the 80 Gig HDD while installing XP.

I install XP on FAT32 partitions all the time, even my XP Pro X64 running on an athlon 64. That's because I do personal rather than business computers.

 

Thanks guys,
I feel a little more confident now and will try your ideas (I'm always a bit iffy with something I'm unfamiliar with)

I'll let you know how it goes,

Den