Formating a partitioned HD

J

jred21

New Member
Hi
Im having a lot of trouble finding information on the formatting of a partioned hard drive, sorry if this has been covered many times but i havent been able to find a relevant post.

I want to format my c:\ which windows XP is installed on, my partitioned drive d:\ i want to keep the same. I simply want to know the easiest way to format the c:\ without loosing data on d;\. Also in doing this do i need to reinstall windows from the cd since i am clearing the c:\.

Any help would be appreciated or any links to similar posts that i have not found.
Thanks
 
ok

firstly, running setup from a Windows XP CD will detect the partition information and you will be able to select the partition that you wish to install windows on. however, the setup program doesnt identify the partitions via volume label, it does so by bytecount, with that in mind, make sure you get the right one! It might be worth backing up your data anyway just in case.

You'll also definetley require the official original product disk, and of course, your authentic license key for windows.

If your PC is a major brand, it could well of come with recovery disks instead. You should still be able to identify the partition you wish to install windows on.

If the system contains hard drive based recovery (i doubt it from your post as you mentioned the CD, let me know)

one final thing is to make sure you elect to just install Windows over the top for now, that way your pretty safe in regards to your data. If you reformat, you could well be buggered if you select the incorrect partition!
 
Its a dell demension, ive got cds that came with it, e.g a drivers and utilities cd. I just went to a friends to pick up his windows cd, although it is Windows XP reinstallation cd the cover of this cd is a dell cover, the copy of windows that came with my dell was a normal XP cover disk, im hopin they work the same, my product key is on my comp so thats fine.

Basically ive put everything i want to keep onto d:\ and i just want to start fresh on c:\ due to a few viruses poppin up.
 
don't think that im a complete idiot, but i was wondering if you could give me a brief list of instructions of how to do it. I just don't wanna be too confident n rush through it.
 
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