Reformat hard drive under XP? - Comments Page 3

Hi, I reformat hd and tried to installation xp pro, it copy all files need for setup and it shouldn't reboot to start setup xp.
Please help me. I checked one by one RAM, HD, Everything looks right.

I got a bunch of hard drives from a guy, and I found a useable 40gb hard drive, so I shut down my machine and put it here my D: drive has been running for 2 years, no XP system files on it, but I did find out there are some locked forders and files and the only way to get rid of them would be to formatt rhe drive, but I can't find any format command in the menu like on w98 so I seem to be stuck now.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Go to My Computer, right-click on the D: drive icon, and you should see Format as an option.

i'm trying to reinstall my copy of windows xp professional and i want to erase the partition and install a fresh one but it says "setup is unable to perform requested operation on the selected partition. this partition contains temporary setup files that are required to complete the installation." i dont have room to create a new partition, and if i overwrite the old one, the files that are corrupted and that i cant manually uninstall are still there. please help

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you boot from the setup CD?

I reformatted my hard drive on my desktop and now my monitor doesn't boot up when I restart my pc. I just get a black screen. Are there drivers available for the monitor. I managed to restore all the programs and drivers using the original disks. I can get back to the desktop menu only when I use the windows XP disk to repair the installation. Can anyone help me?

EDITOR'S NOTE: So the "repair" sounds like it worked. Is there another problem?

I have a hard drive that "has nothing on it"....I mean that when I try to use it, I get a message telling me that there is no OS installed. Yet when I try to install XP from the disk, it won't let me install it either. So I need to know whether I can reformat the hard drive in order to install an OS...and if so, I need detailed instructions and keystroke guide/etc. PLEASE HELP!!!!
I can't afford to buy a new PC.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Either the disk is damaged or it needs to be formatted before use. The instructions for formatting are in the article above.

When I turn on my computer (HP/Windows XP) all I get is a black scren with an error code saying the following file is missing or corrupt- \windows\system32\config\system. Is reformatting the drive an option (as I can't get the system to boot), or am I spinning my wheels? Thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: Reformatting is an option, but maybe a little extreme. Try booting with the Setup CD, and choose the option to Repair your Windows installation.

when i insert my xp disk everything is fine until where it says starting windows and says: STOP:c0000221unknown hard error \SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll

EDITOR'S NOTE: Unknown error? Maybe a hard drive hardware error. You may need a new drive.

I'm getting the exact same problem, i want to reformat my pc because its outrageously full, says it has about 1% disk space left.. and ive tried deleting everything i dont need.. Yes i am using the boot setup cd.. this isnt the first time ive reformated a pc, but its the first time ive come across this problem... i talked to a friend he said that there is something on my pc that i have to delete but he doesnt know where it is.. so im pretty much stuck.. ive already created a new partition with a low amount of disk space and then tried to run the Boot CD again but it still wouldnt let me delete the main partition... please help someone..

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you sure that you are BOOTING from the Setup CD? If you boot up into Windows, and THEN run the Setup program from the CD, you will not be able to delete the partition that Windows is running from. If that's not the problem, you can try a partition manager such as PartitionMagic or Acronis Disk Partition Manager.

I'm trying to reformat my Hard Drive. Yes i Tried the other options first and they didn't seem to have much effect. My problem is i can't hit ESC and skip the fix. And when i Hit f3 to quit it still doesn't allow me to select a partition and delete it. What do i do now?

My computer is a dell demension 3000, bought about 2.5 years ago, and i finally decided i needed to wipe everything. however when i get to the delete partititon option it wont let me because it says "it needs the temporary setup files on the partition to complete the installation of windows. the only way i could get it to start in the first place was to intiate a xp installation. otherwise when i try to boot from disk i dont think it does it just goes back to the hardrive. please help this si really frustrating.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You may have to change BIOS settings to make your computer boot from the CDROM.