Need help formatting c in XP

[Matthew]

OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
results. Here's the situation:

She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
format her drive during the installation process. It
didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
hard part. There seems to be no easy/hard way to format
her hard drive. The command prompt within XP will not
allow you to format c: and when we rebooted the machine
in dos, with a dos boot disk made by XP, it did not
recognize the command 'format' or even allow us to switch
to the c: drive, or really much of anything. It seemed to
be stuck in a:.

So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!

Matthew

[Nick Burns]

You have to direct xp to do the format.

You set the bios for to boot from the xp cd rom. Boot for the disk and read
the screens to do a format and install. It's all their.


"Matthew" > wrote in message
...
> OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
> computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
> results. Here's the situation:
>
> She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
> to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
> and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
> upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
> format her drive during the installation process. It
> didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
> computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
> hard part. There seems to be no easy/hard way to format
> her hard drive. The command prompt within XP will not
> allow you to format c: and when we rebooted the machine
> in dos, with a dos boot disk made by XP, it did not
> recognize the command 'format' or even allow us to switch
> to the c: drive, or really much of anything. It seemed to
> be stuck in a:.
>
> So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
> her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
> find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
> install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
> 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
> sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
>
> Matthew

[Bruce]

See control pannel>computer management>disk mgt

this will allow you to delete partitions


"Matthew" > wrote in message
...
> OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
> computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
> results. Here's the situation:
>
> She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
> to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
> and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
> upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
> format her drive during the installation process. It
> didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
> computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
> hard part. There seems to be no easy/hard way to format
> her hard drive. The command prompt within XP will not
> allow you to format c: and when we rebooted the machine
> in dos, with a dos boot disk made by XP, it did not
> recognize the command 'format' or even allow us to switch
> to the c: drive, or really much of anything. It seemed to
> be stuck in a:.
>
> So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
> her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
> find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
> install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
> 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
> sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
>
> Matthew

[Haus]

Hello Matthew
be sure to unhook all peripherals except for the keyboard,mouse and monitor
then go to this site and scroll down and you will see the instructions in
green print

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

--
Hope this helps
Haus

[Michael Stevens]

Matthew wrote:
> OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
> computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
> results. Here's the situation:
>
> She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
> to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
> and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
> upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
> format her drive during the installation process. It
> didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
> computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
> hard part. There seems to be no easy/hard way to format
> her hard drive. The command prompt within XP will not
> allow you to format c: and when we rebooted the machine
> in dos, with a dos boot disk made by XP, it did not
> recognize the command 'format' or even allow us to switch
> to the c: drive, or really much of anything. It seemed to
> be stuck in a:.
>
> So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
> her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
> find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
> install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
> 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
> sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
>
> Matthew

You boot from the CD and do a clean install.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address bar.
How to clean install XP.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP

http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

[Frank]

"Matthew" > wrote in message
...
> OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
> computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
> results. Here's the situation:
snip
> So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
> her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
> find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
> install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
> 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
> sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
>
> Matthew

There is nothing hard about doing what you wish. Just follow
the instructions. They are as plain as a sunny day.

[Jim Macklin]

Xref: kermit microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:935654

You set the BIOS to boot the CD first, boot with the XP CD
in the drive. Press any key, select install, and the XP CD
has all the tools to partition and format the drive.
See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941



"Frank" > wrote in message
...
|
| "Matthew" > wrote in
message
| ...
| > OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on
her
| > computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
| > results. Here's the situation:
| snip
| > So, more or less, I need to know how to completely
format
| > her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
| > find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
| > install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
| > 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
| > sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
| >
| > Matthew
|
| There is nothing hard about doing what you wish. Just
follow
| the instructions. They are as plain as a sunny day.
|
|

[Alex Nichol]

Matthew wrote:

>She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
>to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
>and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
>upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
>format her drive during the installation process. It
>didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
>computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
>hard part.

Start over. Boot the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license
agreement take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC;
select and delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be
formatted at the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one - which is what
happened last time


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[David]

"Matthew" > wrote in
:

> OK, I'm trying to help a friend install Windows XP on her
> computer over the phone with nothing but horrible
> results. Here's the situation:
>
> She originally had Win 2000 on the computer and we wanted
> to completely format her c drive, wipe out everything,
> and then install XP. She has the full version, not the
> upgrade. From what we read, the XP install disk would
> format her drive during the installation process. It
> didn't. So now she has 2000 and XP running on her
> computer, both working rather terribly. Now, here's the
> hard part. There seems to be no easy/hard way to format
> her hard drive. The command prompt within XP will not
> allow you to format c: and when we rebooted the machine
> in dos, with a dos boot disk made by XP, it did not
> recognize the command 'format' or even allow us to switch
> to the c: drive, or really much of anything. It seemed to
> be stuck in a:.
>
> So, more or less, I need to know how to completely format
> her c drive (why is this infomation so difficult to
> find????) and then install XP from scratch. OR, how to
> install XP and let it reformat the drive AND remove win
> 2000 and everything else. I hope this all makes some
> sense to someone. Thank you thank you in advance!!!
>
> Matthew

You can't format a system drive from within the OS. You need to set
your BIOS to boot to CD. Then boot the XP CD and follow directions.

--

David

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