Reinstalling windows

A

alexxturner

New Member
I've googled this countless times and NOT ONE has helped me.

I'm trying to format my hard drive due to the fact I got a pretty bad virus and it NEEDS to be reformatted.

Anyway, I load up my windows xp cd go through the process and then when I get upto the partitioning bit i can't delete the partition to reformat my hard drive and I can't install it on the unpartitioned thing cause it's too small. So i have to install over the already partitioned drive which doesn't get rid of it.

So any suggestions what I can do to delete the partition to reformat the drive and start fresh and new.
 
Unless the drive is encrypted. If I remember right (been quite some time since I did an XP install), you select the partition, press D, L then Enter.

If thats not working, what error message is it giving?
 
Gareth said:
Unless the drive is encrypted. If I remember right (been quite some time since I did an XP install), you select the partition, press D, L then Enter.

If thats not working, what error message is it giving?
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As I said, I can't delete it for some reason and the error message says something like partition cannot be deleted as something is needed for setup. I'm sorry I cant remember much im trying to google it for the error message
 
The DBan is not working :( I loaded it up and there was no drive to install it too and it said "the current image format is not supported by the disk drive"
 
I forgot that some people don't have A: floppy drive.
You could download Hirens Boot cd. It's freeware. Just Google it.
 
MyCattMaxx said:
If you can boot from cd you could use Kill Disk. Free DL
http://www.killdisk.com/

I still don't understand why your Windows installation disc won't do it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your help but the only thing I really have around me is a USB stick and me neither, i try to delete the partition to reformat my hard drive but it's having none of it.

Edit - I installed killdisk to my USB stick but now what do i do?
 
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Downloaded that and It wont let me format it, I made one partition smaller and the unallocated thing bigger.
 
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alexxturner said:
Downloaded that and It wont let me format it, I made one partition smaller and the unallocated thing bigger.
Click to expand...

shoot. i hadnt actually tried that, as the program i use seems to be undownloadable.

To delete the partion:
Open the Control Panel.
Open Administrative Tools.
Open Computer Management.
In the left pane, under Storage, open Disk Management.
The right pane should show a list of your drives, by letter, above a diagram of what partitions they have if any.
Right-click within any of the fields below the colored bars, and select Delete Partition.

Be aware, that this will delete all files on this partition.

EDIT: Im not sure if this will add the deleted partions alloted gigs back to the other one. Someone else help?
 
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If you truly have 2 physical hard drives, take the one out that you don't want to install windows to. Boot to the install cd of the operating system that you want to install. You will need to delete the existing partitions and then repartition and then install windows. What error message are you getting? Do you have another computer that you can put this hard drive into and remove the partitions that way?
 
johnb35 said:
If you truly have 2 physical hard drives, take the one out that you don't want to install windows to. Boot to the install cd of the operating system that you want to install. You will need to delete the existing partitions and then repartition and then install windows. What error message are you getting? Do you have another computer that you can put this hard drive into and remove the partitions that way?
Click to expand...

Well I don't physically have two hard drives I split the one I have into two partitions and now I can't format and delete the other.
 
Are you booting to the cd or running the cd while inside windows. You need to boot to the cd.
 
When I try to delete the partition it says "setup is unable to perform the requested operation on the selected partition. This contains temporary setup files that are needed to complete the installation"
 
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