Question on Formatting my C: Drive

[war|forever]

Ok so I want to wipe my main C drive clean, and reinstall Windows XP Professional on it. I've got a backup harddrive where I've copied most of my commonly used programs and files on it, but how can I wipe my main boot volume (c)? I don't have any Windows cds to put XP Professional back on it even if I did manage to format the C drive from the DOS prompt. Help a brutha out.

 

[Preferred User]

Ok so I want to wipe my main C drive clean, and reinstall Windows XP Professional on it. I've got a backup harddrive where I've copied most of my commonly used programs and files on it, but how can I wipe my main boot volume (c)? I don't have any Windows cds to put XP Professional back on it even if I did manage to format the C drive from the DOS prompt. Help a brutha out.

War I'm confused. You want to wipe out your C: drive, reinstall Win XP but then later you say you don't have an XP disk to put XP back on? If you reformat your hard drive, everything is gone....XP, files, everything. You must have an XP disk to reinstall. If XP is in C:\Windows\ like it is for most of us, you will have to reinstall using a CD after you format C:

It doesn't have to be your disk. I've done it many times with another similar XP disk using the CD key code on the sticker on the side of the box. By "similar" I mean if XP Pro SP1 was originally installed on your machine and that's what the sticker on the side says, you can use any XP Pro disk that came out with SP1 and that CD key will install and activate fine. But your XP Pro SP1 CD key will not work with XP Home, or even an XP Pro SP2 disk.

If you don't have a disk, start asking around War. Somebody around you has an XP disk of your type.

 

[Cman]

pretty impossible to do without an XP disk. if you DO get a disk, all you have to do is stick it in the drive and boot from it. you can format your drive and create partitions and everything right from the XP setup thinga-majigger

 

[mindido]

Hey War,

Why are you doing the reformat? I'm about to do the same thing in the next few days but its because my machine is doing some quircky things and I usually do it at least once a year anyway. I'm even going to do a repartition on my main drive to free up more space for D:\ (wasting a lot of space on C:\).

And Cman is correct as far as I know. You need an XP disk. I have seen, in the past, some forums that claim to have XP disks that you can DL and supposedly have the CD key with the DL. You may want to check that out but I don't know if they actually work.

 

[Cobra]

I like to partition a drive just for swapping, a little 5gb drive and my other drives stay nice and clean. xp temp, browser temp, photoshop temp, cad temp. You can set just about every program up to use a specific drive or dir for swappinga and temp files. Also a good cache drive.

 

[Preferred User]

I like to partition a drive just for swapping, a little 5gb drive and my other drives stay nice and clean. xp temp, browser temp, photoshop temp, cad temp. You can set just about every program up to use a specific drive or dir for swappinga and temp files. Also a good cache drive.

Cobra, I've read kind of mixed reviews on that, expecially when it's on the same physical drive. Do you think it gets a little better pagefile speed or do you just like keeping it clean?

 

[mindido]

Cobra, I've read kind of mixed reviews on that, expecially when it's on the same physical drive. Do you think it gets a little better pagefile speed or do you just like keeping it clean?

Preferred,

I can't speak for Cobra, but I do the same thing. My pagefile is on a separate drive with the partition being very small (5 GB). With my roommate's machine, which runs some really memory intensive apps, we made her drive 10 MB (I think the formula is to have at least 2 x available memory). I've heard of some of the same concerns as you so I put the drive on my second drive. I really like it, it does seem to make a speed difference but, for most people, its probably really not necessary. Especially if they're just doing the internet, WP, e-mail thing. Then its probably not worthwhile.

 

[Preferred User]

I've heard of some of the same concerns as you so I put the drive on my second drive.

I guess what I've read is that if you partition a page file area on the same drive, you haven't gained much because the same heads that read your data now have to run over to the pagefile partition, the back to your data...so you haven't gained much. On a separate physical drive where the heads can stay "right there"? That makes some sense to me.

 

[Cman]

I guess what I've read is that if you partition a page file area on the same drive, you haven't gained much because the same heads that read your data now have to run over to the pagefile partition, the back to your data...so you haven't gained much. On a separate physical drive where the heads can stay "right there"? That makes some sense to me.

Yeah, its still the same heads, so logic would dictate that it would only make a difference if it was a separate physical drive. It would help for stuff like defragmenting though.

I have a 10 GB partition for Windows and the rest of my drive for data

 

[Preferred User]

I have a 10 GB partition for Windows and the rest of my drive for data

Data?

Oh, you mean porn.

I know a lot of people who do a Windows partition in FAT32 because it's easier to make repairs, and do the porn partition....er...data partition in NTFS because it handles big tits....I mean big files better.

 

[mindido]

Data?

Oh, you mean porn.

I know a lot of people who do a Windows partition in FAT32 because it's easier to make repairs,

FAT 32? I'm not sure why that makes sense. I do have one partition that is FAT 32 but its only for Linux.

and do the porn partition....er...data partition in NTFS because it handles big tits....I mean big files better.

Preferred,

Now your starting to get it!

 

[Preferred User]

FAT 32? I'm not sure why that makes sense.

Yea, I know some guys who still think they're going to boot up off a Win 98 start up disk and make repairs. Those start up disks can only read FAT32. Prob is, not many computers have floppy drives any more. I have a Knopix disk I use to do the same thing. Boot up with that, put the file you need on a USB drive and pop it back into system32 and you're dancing again!

 

[mindido]

Preferred,

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess a floppy couldn't read NTFS. Are you sure of that? Oh well, other than using Linux and a floppy, I can't think of any "other" reasons for using FAT 32.

 

[Preferred User]

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess a floppy couldn't read NTFS. Are you sure of that?

The floppy isn't the issue, it's the fact that it's a Win 98 boot disk. Win 98 couldn't read NTFS.

 

[mindido]

The floppy isn't the issue, it's the fact that it's a Win 98 boot disk. Win 98 couldn't read NTFS.

Win 98.... People still using that? Hard to believe.

 

[gatsby]

I don't have any Windows cds to put XP Professional back on it

If you need a Windows cd just go to one of the many bittorrent sites. There are two XP Pro versions: Corporate/VLK and Retail/OEM (this one needs activation). For quick installation pick a cd that has SP2 slipstreamed. If Windows XP was installed when you bought your pc then you need the OEM version. Backup your legal XP key if you have one with a program called Keyfinder.

 

[l3lasphemer]

Just a side note to reinstalling with another disk. I would make damn sure that you have a legit copy of XP and your Product key handy. Within the last 2 months of work, I have reinstalled XP (all varieties) too many times to count, every time I ended up having to call the activation center because the disk that I used didn't match the product key of the original install.

Now with that genuine advantage crap, it is damn hard to get any updates after SP2.

Just a friendly reminder.

 

[GrapJ]

but how can I wipe my main boot volume (c)?

if you really want to clean the entire disk then

BE REALLY CAREFUL WITH THIS; IT WILL WIPE YOUR ENTIRE DISK IN TWO SECONDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can use "DELPART.EXE" ; it can be found on the Internet.
Your disk will be in factory state after using.


BE REALLY CAREFUL WITH THIS; IT WILL WIPE YOUR ENTIRE DISK IN TWO SECONDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't know what a partition is then stick with the formatting, it is less destructive.