Partition C only formating with XP pro

[nichos]

My Sata HD has 7 partitions.

I am trying to format only C: & do a clean install of XP, without loosing all the staff in the other partitions.

I did it a few times before, but this time booting in my win98 floppy does not work. Tried 2-3 floppies.

My "Paragon Partition Manager 8.0 Personal" cannot do it as is working within windows.

Tried various ways to get to the DOS prompt A:\ & use "fdisk or format" without success.

My Full XP CD can only format the whole HD.

Can any body help me please? nick

 

[pat mcgroin]

put in the xp cd and start it in a command prompt.
At the prompt type format c: <enter>

 

[nichos]

Thanx all, "......xp cd and start it in a command prompt.....At the prompt type format c:.........."

Pat, can you explain more the above? nick

 

[pat mcgroin]

Boot from the XP cd and press F8 while booting.
Its the same as going to safe mode except you want a command prompt.
Its the same command prompt as you used earlier except basically the cd drive is in charge and not XP.
The reason you couldnt format before was because XP was in use providing the command prompt.
You should see
c:\> (with a blinking cursor)
Now type format c: /q <enter>
q means quick so dont worry.It will ask you if you are sure you want to do this. Say yes
At the end it should ask for a volume name so give it one.
Then reboot with the cd still in there and it should go right to setup.

 

[nichos]

Thanx Pat,

Before I plunge in, do I understand right though that it will NOT format the hole HD with that "C:" bit, but only partition C: ?.

I must keep my other partitions intact like I did a few times before when I used FAT32. This time for some reson I chose NTFS & probably this is not recognised in FDISK which talks about DOS partitions etc.

Even my win98 does not boot in proper prompt. nick

 

[pat mcgroin]

Yes it will only do c:
Your correct about 98 and no NTFS. It wasnt an option.

 

[nichos]

Thanx all again,

I did it, but don't ask how!. Out of all your info managed to concort something & finally with my "real XP install CD" for the upteenth time got the elusive list of partitions, deleted with closed eyes C:, then installed XP which formated C: first & the world is at peace again.

But you are not off the hook yet.

Evidently now the dual boot "boot.ini" is gone & I cannot find where I save the original.

1. Can you add to this below what is necessary to give me the "UBUNTU" option again?

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows
XP"
/fastdetect

2. A different question now:-
I noticed my daughter going online with the internet connection light of her WIRED rooter flashing.

On investication we found that her Asus Wify was connecting to a wave from a near by wireless connection.

We quickly fixed her rooter & disabled what was working in Wifi.

Does this mean that while she was on it others were seeing her emails, letters, user names & passwords?.................... Perish the thought.
nick


Home build,
Asus P5K Premium WiFiiFi Intel,
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 95W 2.4GHz, OCZ Vendetta Cpu Cooler,
2x2GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 800 (400mhz) PC2-6400,
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX KO 512MB GDDR3 (PCI-E),
Maxtor sata 160gb, OCZ 600W Game XStream Psu, X45,XPpro sp3/Ubuntu 8.04.1

 

[montyuk]

try a program called easybcd, its designed for vista but works in xp,

just use it to add a custom entry to the boot file.