Windows XP Professional

[David Bitting]

How do you reformat a harddrive that has Windows XP Pro
installed on it and it won't let you???? Why???

[Jim Macklin]

You can't format the drive with commands that will use the
OS to destroy the OS.

It is like the cartoon with the guy cutting the tree limb he
is sitting upon and on the outside of the cut.

But you can boot the computer with the XP CD and then format
and partition the drive, you will also lose all data on the
disk. If you have Partition Magic 8 (7 might work too) you
can split the drive, leaving all the data and operating
system on the "new C:" and then copy the data to the new
partitions. Then you can use the XP CD to format C:. Then
you do a clean install, reinstall your applications.


"David Bitting" > wrote in message
...
| How do you reformat a harddrive that has Windows XP Pro
| installed on it and it won't let you???? Why???

[Nicholas]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.
2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your =
computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the =
existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the =
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Windows XP Clean Install:=20
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

6. Accessing Motherboard BIOS
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm


--=20
Nicholas

-------------------------------------------------------------------------=


"David Bitting" > wrote in message: =20
...

| How do you reformat a harddrive that has Windows XP Pro=20
| installed on it and it won't let you???? Why???