FDISK

[Jimmy]

I have a question;

I have a PC with a dual boot system of ME/XP home that was
given to me (for X-mas). The Home disk is retail and I
didn't want it when I got the PC, so my dad has it still,
and I don't like XP anymore (too hard on my scanner and
some games I still play online). XP is on NTFS and I am
348 miles from home in school, and want to get rid of the
XP partition, and format it to FAT to use as data storage.
It currently is 10gigs/ME and 20gigs XP.

I have the ME install disk and created a boot disk with
it, but is it possible to use the boot disk to delete the
XP partition, and format it to FAT? Please explain in easy
detail, as one of my schoolmates told me what my setup was.

TIA

Please post answers here as I won't give out my email
address, thanks again!

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jimmy,

Actually, it's quite simple.

Boot the floppy and run fdisk. Remove the non dos partition, then create =
a dos primary or extended partition from the free space. If you create =
an extended partition, you will also need to create one or more logical =
volumes within it.

Once finished, restart to the floppy and run SYS C: to overwrite the =
WinXP boot loader with the Win9x boot files. Then remove the floppy and =
restart using ctrl+alt+delete.

You can format the newly created drives from within Windows Explorer.
--=20
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Jimmy" > wrote in message =
...
> I have a question;
>=20
> I have a PC with a dual boot system of ME/XP home that was=20
> given to me (for X-mas). The Home disk is retail and I=20
> didn't want it when I got the PC, so my dad has it still,=20
> and I don't like XP anymore (too hard on my scanner and=20
> some games I still play online). XP is on NTFS and I am=20
> 348 miles from home in school, and want to get rid of the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT to use as data storage.=20
> It currently is 10gigs/ME and 20gigs XP.
>=20
> I have the ME install disk and created a boot disk with=20
> it, but is it possible to use the boot disk to delete the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT? Please explain in easy=20
> detail, as one of my schoolmates told me what my setup was.
>=20
> TIA
>=20
> Please post answers here as I won't give out my email=20
> address, thanks again!

[Jimmy]

Thanks Mr. Rogers,
It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this place) =
another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that =
FDISK absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with =
the setup I had. Now I know how :-)

Thanks again, and all storage working great!

Jimmy

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" > wrote in message =
...
Hi Jimmy,

Actually, it's quite simple.

Boot the floppy and run fdisk. Remove the non dos partition, then create =
a dos primary or extended partition from the free space. If you create =
an extended partition, you will also need to create one or more logical =
volumes within it.

Once finished, restart to the floppy and run SYS C: to overwrite the =
WinXP boot loader with the Win9x boot files. Then remove the floppy and =
restart using ctrl+alt+delete.

You can format the newly created drives from within Windows Explorer.
--=20
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Jimmy" > wrote in message =
...
> I have a question;
>=20
> I have a PC with a dual boot system of ME/XP home that was=20
> given to me (for X-mas). The Home disk is retail and I=20
> didn't want it when I got the PC, so my dad has it still,=20
> and I don't like XP anymore (too hard on my scanner and=20
> some games I still play online). XP is on NTFS and I am=20
> 348 miles from home in school, and want to get rid of the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT to use as data storage.=20
> It currently is 10gigs/ME and 20gigs XP.
>=20
> I have the ME install disk and created a boot disk with=20
> it, but is it possible to use the boot disk to delete the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT? Please explain in easy=20
> detail, as one of my schoolmates told me what my setup was.
>=20
> TIA
>=20
> Please post answers here as I won't give out my email=20
> address, thanks again!

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Sounds good Jimmy, glad to have helped.

--=20
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Jimmy" > wrote in message =
s.com...
Thanks Mr. Rogers,
It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this place) =
another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that =
FDISK absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with =
the setup I had. Now I know how :-)

Thanks again, and all storage working great!

Jimmy

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" > wrote in message =
...
Hi Jimmy,

Actually, it's quite simple.

Boot the floppy and run fdisk. Remove the non dos partition, then create =
a dos primary or extended partition from the free space. If you create =
an extended partition, you will also need to create one or more logical =
volumes within it.

Once finished, restart to the floppy and run SYS C: to overwrite the =
WinXP boot loader with the Win9x boot files. Then remove the floppy and =
restart using ctrl+alt+delete.

You can format the newly created drives from within Windows Explorer.
--=20
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Jimmy" > wrote in message =
...
> I have a question;
>=20
> I have a PC with a dual boot system of ME/XP home that was=20
> given to me (for X-mas). The Home disk is retail and I=20
> didn't want it when I got the PC, so my dad has it still,=20
> and I don't like XP anymore (too hard on my scanner and=20
> some games I still play online). XP is on NTFS and I am=20
> 348 miles from home in school, and want to get rid of the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT to use as data storage.=20
> It currently is 10gigs/ME and 20gigs XP.
>=20
> I have the ME install disk and created a boot disk with=20
> it, but is it possible to use the boot disk to delete the=20
> XP partition, and format it to FAT? Please explain in easy=20
> detail, as one of my schoolmates told me what my setup was.
>=20
> TIA
>=20
> Please post answers here as I won't give out my email=20
> address, thanks again!

[Ron Martell]

"Jimmy" > wrote:

>Thanks Mr. Rogers,
>It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this place) another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that FDISK absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with the setup I had. Now I know how :-)
>
>Thanks again, and all storage working great!
>

Just a bit of clarification.

Linux partitions show up as non-DOS partitions in FDISK and these
cannot be deleted by FDISK. Perhaps that is what the other person was
thinking about.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[John E. Carty]

"Ron Martell" > wrote in message
...
> "Jimmy" > wrote:
>
> >Thanks Mr. Rogers,
> >It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this place)
another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that FDISK
absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with the setup I
had. Now I know how :-)
> >
> >Thanks again, and all storage working great!
> >
>
> Just a bit of clarification.
>
> Linux partitions show up as non-DOS partitions in FDISK and these
> cannot be deleted by FDISK. Perhaps that is what the other person was
> thinking about.
>
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
> --
> Microsoft MVP
> On-Line Help Computer Service
> http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>
> "The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

In NTFS if you have defined a logical drive in an extended partition FDISK
will not 'see' this drive and therefore cannot delete it. Otherwise, you are
fine using FDISK :-)

[Jimmy]

"John E. Carty" > wrote in message =
. ..
>=20
> "Ron Martell" > wrote in message
> ...
> > "Jimmy" > wrote:
> >
> > >Thanks Mr. Rogers,
> > >It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this =
place)
> another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that =
FDISK
> absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with the =
setup I
> had. Now I know how :-)
> > >
> > >Thanks again, and all storage working great!
> > >
> >
> > Just a bit of clarification.
> >
> > Linux partitions show up as non-DOS partitions in FDISK and these
> > cannot be deleted by FDISK. Perhaps that is what the other person =
was
> > thinking about.

For Ron Martell,

Thanks, I have been coming here and reading, though I no longer have XP. =
But been reading about similar issues that I had with it. I may yet give =
it another try, if and when I get the install disk from my dad, anyway;

Mr. Rogers was spot on, this is how it looked when I did it, and not =
verbatim.
After getting the A: prompt, I typed FDISK, then chose "yes" to use =
"large disk support", then made a choice (#3, I think) to delete a =
partitions. Then I had a choice of 4 others, of which #4 was to delete a =
non-DOS partition. When I chose that, ti showed my C: prtition as =
"Ext-DOS" FAT32 with 10gigs (not exactly 10 gigs tho), and the NTFS =
(though it didn't say NTFS, it said D: "Ext-DOS" did list file type, but =
had the bytes listed for it. I chose #2 whcih was the number for the D: =
partition, and I said yes yto the warning of losing all data on that =
drive, and it was gone. I then ran FDISK again, recreated that =
partition, formatted FAT32 (obviously), and now have storage space.


> In NTFS if you have defined a logical drive in an extended partition =
FDISK
> will not 'see' this drive and therefore cannot delete it. Otherwise, =
you are
> fine using FDISK :-)

My first partition was FAT32 (Millenium Edition), so does that make the =
difference?

The person who told me this cannot be done in any uncertain terms was =
very rude, and used very foul language when I asked him if he was sure. =
My buddy found this newsgroup, and it seems a lot more tech oriented =
then the other.

[John E. Carty]

"Jimmy" > wrote in message
news:6ebf669ae52adc1902af1b11c99f907f@TeraNews...

"John E. Carty" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Ron Martell" > wrote in message
> ...
> > "Jimmy" > wrote:
> >
> > >Thanks Mr. Rogers,
> > >It worked a treat! I was worried, because (before I found this place)
> another person, who was really rude in Alt-os-xp (I think), said that
FDISK
> absolutely cannot delete a NTFS or non-DOS partition, even with the setup
I
> had. Now I know how :-)
> > >
> > >Thanks again, and all storage working great!
> > >
> >
> > Just a bit of clarification.
> >
> > Linux partitions show up as non-DOS partitions in FDISK and these
> > cannot be deleted by FDISK. Perhaps that is what the other person was
> > thinking about.

For Ron Martell,

Thanks, I have been coming here and reading, though I no longer have XP. But
been reading about similar issues that I had with it. I may yet give it
another try, if and when I get the install disk from my dad, anyway;

Mr. Rogers was spot on, this is how it looked when I did it, and not
verbatim.
After getting the A: prompt, I typed FDISK, then chose "yes" to use "large
disk support", then made a choice (#3, I think) to delete a partitions. Then
I had a choice of 4 others, of which #4 was to delete a non-DOS partition.
When I chose that, ti showed my C: prtition as "Ext-DOS" FAT32 with 10gigs
(not exactly 10 gigs tho), and the NTFS (though it didn't say NTFS, it said
D: "Ext-DOS" did list file type, but had the bytes listed for it. I chose #2
whcih was the number for the D: partition, and I said yes yto the warning of
losing all data on that drive, and it was gone. I then ran FDISK again,
recreated that partition, formatted FAT32 (obviously), and now have storage
space.


> In NTFS if you have defined a logical drive in an extended partition FDISK
> will not 'see' this drive and therefore cannot delete it. Otherwise, you
are
> fine using FDISK :-)

My first partition was FAT32 (Millenium Edition), so does that make the
difference?

You got me there, I'm really not sure :-) I know if the entire drive had
been NTFS you would have had an issue with FDISK seeing/deleting the logical
drives in the extended partition.

The person who told me this cannot be done in any uncertain terms was very
rude, and used very foul language when I asked him if he was sure. My buddy
found this newsgroup, and it seems a lot more tech oriented then the other.

I've learned tons just from watching these groups, and I'm just happy when I
can contribute back in some small way.