Format C Drive before Reinstall

  • Thread starter Thread starter John R
  • Start date Start date
J

John R

I am trying to reinstall XP HE on the C drive and in Disk Management after
selecting the C drive and a right click there is no dialog box to select
format. After the right click the only options are : Open,Explore,Change
Drive Letter or Path,Properties, and Help. I have checked User Accounts and
I am the administrator. At a loss to what is wrong and / or what to do next.
 
Hi

You will need to format the hard drive/partition using the XP CD - after
booting your computer with it. If you want to perform a 'Clean' install of
XP, please see the following article by Michael Stevens:

"Clean Install Windows XP "
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Shell/User
Please reply to the Newsgroup


Please reply to the Newgroups
 
You can't format your C: drive from within Windows; you will need to format
the drive during the XP install

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_format_my_hard_drive_us.htm

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm


--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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John said:
I am trying to reinstall XP HE on the C drive and in Disk Management after
selecting the C drive and a right click there is no dialog box to select
format. After the right click the only options are : Open,Explore,Change
Drive Letter or Path,Properties, and Help. I have checked User Accounts and
I am the administrator. At a loss to what is wrong and / or what to do next.
Click to expand...


You're trying to format the drive containing the system volume from
within WinXP. You can't. This would be the computer equivalent of
sawing off the tree limb you're sitting on, and WinXP is "too smart" to
allow this.

After backing up any data you wish to transfer to the new OS
installation,, simply boot from the WinXP Home installation CD. You'll
be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as
part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order
of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Then the backed up data can be restored and applications re-installed.


--

Bruce Chambers

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