Formating and reinstall XP

[wolfshade2002]

Hi guys and gals im trying to completely wipe my hard drive and reinstall xp on my system. I reinstalled it from the xp disk but it left everything i had on it.. Normaly i guess that would be nice. but I want to start clean. I tryed booting from a win 98 boot disk and told me my hard drive couldnt be formated nor could the xp setup run from dos. Then I tryed to boot from the xp disk and delete the partition and I got this message (Set up unable to perform requsted operation on the selected partition. This partition contains temporary setup files that are required to complete the installation) Uhh I have looked at some sites for help but alas I have tryed it and it has not worked, Any help would be greatly apresiated, I leave it in your graces

 

[Admiral Michael]

When you install XP it will find that there is a version already on the drive, tell it to install a fresh copy. When you get to the part where it asks what partition to install Windows on, simply highlight the partition and delete it. The options are on the top. Then after it will say "Unpartitioned Space", highlight this, press enter and format as NTFS or FAT32 (NTFS preferred) and there you go.

 

[wolfshade2002]

Am i correct in asuming you mean when it says press D to delete selected partition? if so it wont let me delete it i tryed that

 

[Admiral Michael]

Ya, thats strange that it wont let you do that. Its very interesting.

 

[wolfshade2002]

any other suggstions?? admiral or anyone else who might be able to help oh and when i try to delete the partition i get the error above about the temp files needed for setup

 

[Admiral Michael]

I have a program called partition remover, it worked for me when I had to delete a ntfs partition. Can't remember where I got it from but I still have it so Ill put it on my website and give you a link. I believe you copy it to your 98 boot disk, boot off the disk and run the delpart file.


Click Here to Download

 

[wolfshade2002]

so what do i do just boot up with the win 98 boot disk and then type delpart??

 

[Admiral Michael]

ya, cant remember if u need the file extension but thats basically it. Its will load a program and ask waht to delete. Ive only needed to use it once. But it worked.

 

[wolfshade2002]

ill give it a shot youll know the worst if i dont post anytime soon

 

[Admiral Michael]

OK, good luck!

 

[lechtard]

usually when you put the win 98 boot disk in, wait for it to come up with a:> prompt and type fdisk. then select delete non dos partitions it works ..

after you do that just create the partition and make it active, hit esc to exit fdisk, take the floppy out, and put the cd in, then reboot .. this is the way I do it all the time and it never fails ..

the rest is self explinatory, when it comes up to the part asking about making it ntfs select yes ...

when you put the cd in and try it the way you explained it is like doing an upgrade, you should never upgrade any windows OS.

 

[Admiral Michael]

I tried that, it messed up for some reason, this program works like a charm.

 

[scriptasylum]

Do you have "troubles" on your drive? A scandisk or something might turn up a disk error that might prevent you from doing that, but it does sound odd.

 

[Gus K]

Forget about Windows boot disks. Get your drive's set up disk from their site. You want to check fitness and either 'zero' it or do a LL format. No partioning or formatting. You can use Maxtor's, it seems to work well for all drives. Create a boot disk with the file and fire it up. Do the Advanced test, it will tell you if your drive is fit. Then do the Low level format. This will wipe your drive completely clean (good to do after virus troubles also). You now have a virgin drive again. This will take some time. Now boot off your XP disc, partition (if you want), format and start your install.

 

[wolfshade2002]

Hey guys sorry It's been awhile Admiral that proggy worked great. And everyone else's Ideas are good to. I used that program and it fixed my troubles and got a clean install.. Thanks