help

[swh123wdh456]

hey guys,,my 1st post here,, i thought this would be the place to get help. heres what i want to do,,, i have an old dell pc, i want to wipe the hard drive of ME and install xp,, the drive is a 40gb maxtor, fat 32,, so , question #1. how to format the drive completely,, #2. xp will work on a fat 32 ? i know these may sound stupid,, but i would sure appreciate some info.. thanks

 

[Crashman]

Yes, you can wipe the drive by deleting the partition during XP setup and creating a new one. When you format it (the next step in setup) you'll have a choice of FAT32 or NTFS.

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[sjonnie]

<i>> #1. how to format the drive completely</i>

In the WinXP setup program you have the chance to create and delete partitions. Don't be suprised to find that you have a small ~32MB partition on the start of the drive, it's some proprietary Dell info thing. You can safely delete it or just leave it alone, won't make any difference. Then you can format the drive.

<i>>#2. xp will work on a fat 32</i>

Yes, but you don't need to keep it as a FAT32 drive, you can choose to make it NTFS during the format.

 

[swh123wdh456]

oh, so what i need to do is boot pc with xp disk and reformat with it? then i'll have the option for fat32 or nfts? right,, i didnt have a clue,, thanks all, i appreciate the info,, i have actually built a few systems from the ground up, but with all new hardware, so i know a liitle, but i was stumped on how to get ME off of that machine,, makes sense though,, i was ready to just purchase a new drive and install,, anyhow,, thanks again,, saved me some coin,,