Reformat hard drive under XP? - Comments Page 8

Hey Bob, I wanna ask, If I clean install my Windows XP, I choose the main drive, C: . Do other drive, D:, will be cleaned out? This question makes me frustrated the most coz hard to find such question.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you choose C: as the install target for Windows, it will NOT affect your D: drive. Likewise, if you reformat your C: drive, it will not affect your D: drive, even if it's a partition on the same physical drive.

Bob, I am fixing my little newphews computer. It's a pentium 2 with about 400mhz (give or take a few). For some reason someone had Windows XP on that poor computer. Anywho, I want to load Win 98SE on it. I was finally able to format the HD but now all I get is an error. Something about.."insert system boot disk"??? I'm going to try and load up the Win 98 boot disk and see if this takes care of it. Any tips?

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you format a disk, there's NOTHING on it. So booting up an empty hard disk you should expect that error. You need to load an operating system on the disk. I wonder why you removed XP... I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT go online with a Win98 computer. The OS is old, unsupported and vulnerable.

Thank you so much for such an easy-to-read and informative page! I am getting ready for ye olde maintenance format and reinstalling . . . it has been a while and my computer is crying out in agony. I want to avoid having to reinstall all those programs and product keys, etc every time I clean my system, so the last time I did the old ritual I vowed that I would create my own custom bootable dvd by making an ISO of my fresh install once I got it reconfigured with my needed software and so forth. What is a good program to do this?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Win XP by itself cannot burn a bootable ISO disk. But there's a little addon that makes it possible. See http://askbobrankin.com/burn_iso_image.html

I have reformatted my hd many times with other PCs in the past without a hitch, but recently I went to reformat with XP on a custom built PC, with an ABIT IL-8 MoBo, and the HD i am using is a Maxtor 6L200PO, 200gb. Prior to the reformat I had 2 partitions on the HD, C and D. I ran Windows On C Drive and All My Gaming and Publishing ware on the D drive. So when I did the Usual, Win Setup, ENTER, F8, MS Validation, Then instead of showing the partitioned data that I WAS going to reformat, I see 194.5 gb (out of 200gb) of unallocated space ?? I have previously had to Del, (then L confirm), but this time it was as if it was already formatted, plus I was missing 5.5gb of space, I continued to do the 2 partition but this time it showed only C then F I am puzzled.

EDITOR'S NOTE: So you reformatted, and now your hard drives are C: and F:? Do you have two physical drives (not partitions) or just one?

Bob, I am trying to reformate my daughters computer. Way to many viruses and junk on it taking up space. She needs a clean slate. Anyhow, I rebooted from CD (xp hoem edition) and when I got to the part to delete the partition it told me it could not be deleted, files needed to install xp. So when I finished installing the new installation, Windows was clean but the c-drive is a mess. Have multiple document folders and start up folder and all the other crap she had on it doubled.

I called Dell and they want to charge me 50.00 to tell me how to reformat the c - drive. I told them to get real. Any suggestions.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Liz, it sounds like you didn't boot from the CDROM. You need to shut down and power off the computer, then boot up with the XP Setup CD in the CDROM drive. If you insert and run the CD while Windows is running, you'll get the error you described.

Bob, I can not get the computer to boot from the xp cd. I have an old windows 98 cd and a restoration cd for my old gateway it boots from them but will not boot from my XP cd. Any suggestions. Note: I tried booting from the window 98 cd and then inserting the xp cd didnt work (didn't think it would but had to try) I don't even get the option to boot from cd or hard drive. It is making me crazy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Your CD must be damaged. Can you borrow one from a friend?

Bob that is a brand new cd mine was destroyed and dell just sent me a new one. I asked for another one and they said there was nothing wrong with the one they sent me and want to charge me for another. So If I borrow one can I still put in the correct product code number or do I have to try and switch out the cd sometime during installation?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think you can just enter the correct product code number, no need to swap out the CD.

Hi Bob, Recently had pc worked on to remove viruses and now it is time to reformat. Will I lose any of my documents including pictures, audio and video files by carrying out this procedure? I'm already aware that I'll be loading most of my programs again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes! If you reformat, you will lose EVERYTHING on the hard drive. Avoid reformatting if you're sure the viruses are all gone. Or make a backup, reformat, and reload all your docs, pics, etc.

Hi Bob, my sons Toshiba Tecra is driving us crazy as it doesn't want to do much of anything especially go on the net.We want to use the recovery disk provided with it to reformat the HD. After we do that will it know its got a battery ,CD drive etc? We've removed all the stuff we want to keep to an external HD.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The recovery disk should bring it back to "factory new" condition, as far as the contents of the HD. You should have no problem with it recognizing the hardware.

Hi Bob, I keep seeing the blue screen of death on my windows xp PC. A process called 'update.exe' has been running at nearly 100% and every time it causes a fatal system error. As soon as I try to do a virus or spyware scan i get the blue screen. What are my options I am thinking its time to reformat. Also when windows try to do its error reporting the error report cannot be transmitted however I can still surf the web. I am stuck on this one.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is a known virus with that name. I suggest you try using X-RayPC to nuke it. See http://www.askbobrankin.com/should_i_buy_antispyware_or_antivirus_software.html