Question about formating 1 of 2 partitions.

BKSinAZ · 03-14-2006, 03:32 AM

I have a 120 gig hard drive. Before installing service pack 2, my computer could not read the entire hard drive. Now it can.

Before asking my question..after my computer was able to see the entire hard drive, I created two partitions. Partition A is for the operating system and programs. Partition B is files, docs, Backups, and music.

My operating system (partition A) needs to be wiped out and reinstalled due to too many problems to list. When I format Partition A, I will obviously erase everything on that partition as well as loose service pack 2. When I do, will I loose the the files on Partition B? Remember that with out sp 2 that my computer cant read entire 120 gig hd.

suprasteve · 03-14-2006, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BKSinAZ

I have a 120 gig hard drive. Before installing service pack 2, my computer could not read the entire hard drive. Now it can.

that doesn't really make sense since xp without service packs should read 137gb, but anyways, to answer your question nothing should happen to your second partition, what you will want to do is when you reinstall xp, make sure the bootable xp disk recognizes both partitions before installing and reinstall to the correct partition

**DCIScouts** · 03-14-2006, 05:23 AM

Like suprasteve said, if you just reinstall the OS on the partition with the OS already on it, it will leave the other partition alone and keep all of your data. Why I'm responding is more for clarification. Did you download SP2 with SP1? As far as I know, the patch to allow XP to recognize more that 80 GB was a part of SP1 and not SP2. Just curious. (I also had that issue, which was fixed by SP1

)

BKSinAZ · 03-14-2006, 10:11 AM

Perhaps I was confused and indeed maybe it was SP1 that I downloaded.
I was just worried that after I erase (format) partition A, there will be no SP1 to recognize the Partition B which exceeds the 80 gig.

"As far as I know, the patch to allow XP to recognize more that 80 GB was a part of SP1 and not SP2. Just curious. (I also had that issue, which was fixed by SP1 )"

suprasteve · 03-14-2006, 05:14 PM

like I said, just make sure that when you reformat, the bootable xp disk recognizes both partitions and not just one big partition

03-14-2006, 03:32 AM	#1 (permalink)
BKSinAZ Bronze Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 80	Question about formating 1 of 2 partitions. I have a 120 gig hard drive. Before installing service pack 2, my computer could not read the entire hard drive. Now it can. Before asking my question..after my computer was able to see the entire hard drive, I created two partitions. Partition A is for the operating system and programs. Partition B is files, docs, Backups, and music. My operating system (partition A) needs to be wiped out and reinstalled due to too many problems to list. When I format Partition A, I will obviously erase everything on that partition as well as loose service pack 2. When I do, will I loose the the files on Partition B? Remember that with out sp 2 that my computer cant read entire 120 gig hd.

03-14-2006, 05:23 AM	#3 (permalink)
DCIScouts Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA Age: 25 Posts: 5,044	Like suprasteve said, if you just reinstall the OS on the partition with the OS already on it, it will leave the other partition alone and keep all of your data. Why I'm responding is more for clarification. Did you download SP2 with SP1? As far as I know, the patch to allow XP to recognize more that 80 GB was a part of SP1 and not SP2. Just curious. (I also had that issue, which was fixed by SP1 ) __________________ In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -Martin Luther King Jr. The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a little. -Joe Martin FOLDING FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND :F@H Team 44358 Posting and you - CF Edition Cheers CF

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03-14-2006, 10:11 AM	#4 (permalink)
BKSinAZ Bronze Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 80	Perhaps I was confused and indeed maybe it was SP1 that I downloaded. I was just worried that after I erase (format) partition A, there will be no SP1 to recognize the Partition B which exceeds the 80 gig. "As far as I know, the patch to allow XP to recognize more that 80 GB was a part of SP1 and not SP2. Just curious. (I also had that issue, which was fixed by SP1 )"

03-14-2006, 05:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
suprasteve Diamond Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,355	like I said, just make sure that when you reformat, the bootable xp disk recognizes both partitions and not just one big partition