repartitioning and formatting in XP

[flum44]

I just installed XP on a new system, with one partition. I decided I would like to repartition my hard drive into two partitions, but I can't figure out how to do it. I've tried running fdisk, but I'm not really sure if fdisk is included in windows anymore. Also, when I installed XP it named my drive E: instead of C:. I just read a post on this, and I tried changing the drive letter in disk manager, but windows won't let you change it. Any ideas on either topic would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Arrow]

You can find the FDISK utility on a Win98 startup disk if you have one lying around.

As for partitioning, I recommend you use Partition Magic to simplify everything.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[flum44]

Yeah I was thinking about using partition magic, but I've been reading a lot of bad things about it around the web...

 

[HonestJhon]

i try and keep it simple by just using fdisk...
a bit more basic than a third party software....but then again, i havent really used partition magic...
but i do know that you can supposedly resize the partitions without loosing stuff?
dont hold me to that tho....

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[jktzweiss]

Just bought Partitionmagic 7.0 last week, and created 3 partitions on my 2nd hdd and it worked flawless and it also accomplished it in about 10 minutes. So it gets a thumbs up from me!!!!!!!JW

 

[btvillarin]

Well, I'll be a second testimonial that PartitionMagic hasn't screwed up my data. When my OS hard drive failed, I had to partition my data-only hard drive to accomodate Windows. This required my data to be moved. But, it went through flawlessly overnight. <i>Your milage may vary</i>

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin/Articles/hddilema.htm" target="_new">Read about my hard drive dilema</A>

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin" target="_new">My Website</A>-<b>reorganized</b> & updated everyday

 

[flum44]

So just to make sure, if I use fdisk, it will partition in FAT32, correct? Then if I reinstall XP it will convert to NTFS? In case you can't tell, I've never done this before, so I'm not really too familiar with fdisk, and whether it supports NTFS. I'm guessing it doesn't.

 

[btvillarin]

Since you'd be getting FDISK from Win9x/ME, it'll only partition in FAT/FAT32. If you partition using FDISK, then install XP, you will have the option to use the your current filesystem, or you can switch to NTFS. But FYI, if you decide to dual-boot, you can't convert back to FAT32 (without a 3rd party program like PartitionMagic).

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin" target="_new">My Website</A>-<b>reorganized</b> & updated everyday

 

[HonestJhon]

stuff like fat 32 and ntfs come after fdisk...
fdisk just sets up the partition.
when you format, then you choose stuff like ntfs and fat 32.
you set up your partitions, and then start to install the os, and it asks you if you want to make the partition fat 32, or ntfs.

fdisk wont format...just partition.


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[CALV]

I use partition magic fairly regularly (V6) and have never yet had a problem with data loss, anyway, in this case, if you are going to fdisk, then your data's gone anyway (for all intents and purposes)


If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?

 

[hmmstefanie]

AOMEI Partition Assistant can help to repartition hard drive easily and safely with its functions, such as resize, split, create, etc. http://www.****/resource/repartition-hard-drive-windows.html