Formatting HD from XP CD?

[Hal Courtney]

Am I going to be able to do this? I want to start with a perfectly clean install. Will Format.exe be in a folder on the cd somewhere?

Or am I going to have to format using my Win 98 floppy emergency boot disk? Will XP OEM then install over the empty Win 98-formatted disk?

Harold

[Poseidon]

You should be able to do it from the XP Cd. I know you can with Windows 2000 Pro and I believe XP is similar. Just make sure you have your BIOS set to boot from CD.

· Pop your Windows XP Cd in and reboot.
· Once you have booted from the CD you will be prompted whether you want to repair an existing installation of Windows or install a fresh copy.
· You will then have the option to delete the existing partition(s), and create a new one.
· Next choose the type of file system, Unless you will need to access the drive from another operation system I recommend using NTFS.

The rest should be self-explanatory.

Good luck

[Damned Angel]

you can do it from the xp cd, but be forewarned. if your drive is over 20 or 40 gig (can't rember which one) the only option you will see available is ntfs. if this happens, then whip out the trusty 98 boot disk and use fat32 (if you don't want to use ntfs)

[Hal Courtney]

Thanks guys. I did a dry run and that'll work fine.

Could you point me to a site where I could read about the advantages and disadvantages of ntfs vs. fat32. I know absolutely nothing...

Harold

[Damned Angel]

<a href="http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8294" target="_blank">http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8294</a>

<a href="http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1227" target="_blank">http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1227</a>

<a href="http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=63" target="_blank">http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=63</a>

<a href="http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win2kmem/2.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win2kmem/2.shtml</a>

[Quiet Thunder]

[quote]Originally posted by Damned Angel:
<strong>you can do it from the xp cd, but be forewarned. if your drive is over 20 or 40 gig (can't rember which one) the only option you will see available is ntfs. if this happens, then whip out the trusty 98 boot disk and use fat32 (if you don't want to use ntfs)</strong><hr></blockquote>

I have a 40 gig HD and it didn't force me to use NTFS. I was going to use it anyways, but it gave me the option.