How do I reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows XP?

[pinguinotuerto]

I already reinstalled Windows XP thinking that it was going to automatically reformat my hard drive, but it didn't. I tried to reformat the hard drive under XP and of course it won't let me because it's using it. I want a fresh start. I want to reformat my drive and reinstall windows XP. Please help!

😕

 

[Lonman]

When you boot to the installation CD you should have the option to delete the partition, recreate it, format in your FS of choice, and install.

 

[pinguinotuerto]

Thanks Lonman for replying, but when I tried to delete my partition which was C it didn't let me do it. maybe it's because i did it from Windows itself. I'll try again!

 

[Lonman]

Yeah, you'll have to do it from the CD... put the cd in and boot to it... it will give you your installation options from there.

 

[eGoalter]

hmm

the xp cd will only format in ntfs, you cant do fat 32 unless you have a me startup floppy or somthing.🙄

 

[mulrat]

You can't format a disk bigger than 30GB in FAT32 format under windows XP

 

[eGoalter]

ummkay?

hmm, umm mabey you could show us, cause i have nver seen an option period to do fat 32 in xp, are you saying if you have
a drive thats like 40gb for instance that it wont even give you an option to format it in fat 32? i dont wanna say your mistaken, but
hmm.🙄

 

[downunderground]

Thats BS. My 40 gig is FAT32.

 

[mulrat]

You must have done it with a ME or 98 boot floppy under fdisk, because you CANNOT format a disk with FAT32 above 34GB using EITHER computer management or the installation cd. If you don't believe me try it......

 

[eGoalter]

well?

now im lost here, no one has answered the question, and i stand by the fact that i still see no option in xp to format in fat 32, u cannot do it according to microsoft either. the xp disk will only format in ntfs.it does not matter, what size hd, we have tried,
to doit last night with 4 diff hds all diff sizes, not one option to format in fat 32 in xp.🙄

 

[eGoalter]

ohh ya

its true on any os that fat 32 will only show like 37 gig max.
but what does that have to do with doing it in xp?

 

[mulrat]

If you have a second disk and you are running xp, go to computer management and right click the mouse over the highlighted disk, click format, and presuming your disk is smaller than 34GB it will give you the option to format in NTFS or FAT32. If you are trying a clean install, boot to your install cd and delete the partition, create one smaller than 34GB and then you will be given the options to either: format NTFS, format NTFS (quick), format FAT32, and format FAT32 (quick)

 

[eGoalter]

thx,mulrat.

thx dude i stand corrected now,that answers my question, hehe😛 😀 😛 😉

 

[robsta4]

The way I did it is to download the Windows XP boot disks from Microsoft. When you use these it gives you the option of choosing which partition you want to install on, plus whether you want the partion formated with FAT 32 or NTFS first. Extremely easy, and fool proof.