Reformat hard drive under XP? - Comments Page 2

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.

Thanks so much, you saved my life !!!! I followed the procedures to the letter, and it worked! Thanks again!

I put my Windows XP install disk in, but at what stage do you get the option to: "select the partition where Windows is installed so you can delete it"? It just installed another copy of Windows along side of my old copy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: After you press ESC to bypass the Repair option, you will see a list of your partitions. Don't press ENTER here... select a partition with the arrow keys and then press "D" to delete it.

I've got several hard drives, salvaged from discarded computers, sitting on the shelf (they have the XP Pro OS on them). I want to format them, put them back on the shelf, and use them again in the future. I do NOT want to reinstall XP Pro (or anything else) on them at this time.

I plan to put each hard drive in my external enclosure, hook it up to my computer, and format the drive. Will I run into trouble doing so, since the computer hard drive will be running XP Pro, and the external drive I want to format will also have XP Pro on it? Will the two drives conflict for some reason? I've formatted drives before but always to reinstall the OS on the drive. Not sure if I'd damage my computer's drive with the above project. Your thoughts? Thanks...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Should be no problem, since you're not booting from them.

Thanks! It was a newbie question, but better safe than sorry. The drives formatted without incident. Thanks again...

when i press enter to install Windows XP it tells me that there is no drive detected? Yet I run drive diagnostics and it sais that my drive is fine :S

Im trying to reformat my HD using the windowsxp cd however when i set my startup to cdrom the comp will not start from the cd-rom on my Emachines computer
Anyone have any suggestions about this?

I have followed the instructions to format and reinstall Windows XP. I boot from the XP setup disk. When I delete the partition (press D then L to confirm) - everything is fine so far. When I create the new partition, it gives me only 150+ Mb of the 320 MB drive. There are no other partitions. I have the same problem if I use Windows 98 fdisk and delete the partition and try to create new.

However, in the past - same computer (hard drive) the maximum size of the partition was 310+ Mb. I did have Acronis True Image Secure Zone set up and I cannot remember if I deleted the Secure Zone prior to reformatting.

How can I get back the addional hard drive space?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like there is a partition still there, left over from the Acronis software. Check your BIOS to see if you have a hidden or protected partition, and see if you can unhide it. Acronis Disk Director may also be able to help you find and delete a hidden partition.

My 80 GB hard disk is partitioned into 2 - C drive is 10GB and D drive takes up the rest. My C drive was kept for OS system files and such. Due to a problem, I reinstalled Windows XP on the C partition. Now, in My Computer, when I click on my D drive, it says my D drive is not formatted.

When reinstalling Windows, it asked which partition to install it to. I chose the C drive (did not delete the partition first) and then did a full reformat on it (NTFS)...and proceeded to install Windows on it. I hope you can help me. I have many important files on the D drive and I hope I can still recover them. Many thanks in advance!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out the TESTDISK program. See http://askbobrankin.com/hard_drive_crash.html

I had to replace my hard drive on my pc. when I went to go install windows xp, my monitor had a blank blue screen. I cannot get my monitor to show anything.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I assume you put in the Windows CDROM and made sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CD?

I have 60gb desktop hard drive which was full of bad sector that why operating system very slow. I dont know what happen format the hard drive without wasting of my time i format the whole hard drive and reinstall the window XP. Suddenly i check my mail that time i saw i lost my data. Then i contact with one of the famous recovery centre HDRC in Nehru Place here i came and ask about the problem they gave me some timefor testing and recovery also. When i check my data they recoverd whole data which one i dnot want to be recoverd. They have very efficient tools for recovery the hard drive. I advice you whenever you want format the hard drive firstly taken backup of your HDD.