Format Hard Disk

[rn5a]

I have Win2K Pro installed in the C:\ drive & WinXP Pro installed in
the D:\ drive of my m/c. Due to some reasons, Win2K just refuses to
start though while booting it shows the 'Windows is starting up...'
screen along with the Win2K logo after which Win2K restarts itself. The
C:\ & D:\ drives are partitioned with each having hard disk size of
9.32GB. All my MP3s exist in the D:\ drive. All these MP3s occupy
almost 6GB of the hard disk space (out of the available 9.32GB in D:\).
Since almost 70% of the hard disk space in D:\ is occupied by MP3s, I
am running short of hard disk space in the D:\ drive to install other
heavy-duty programs like .NET2.0, it's SDK, documentation, tutorials,
SQL Server 2005 & it's SDK, documentation & tutorials, Visual Web
Developer 2003 Express Edition etc.

Since I am not being allowed to log into Win2K, to free up space in
D:\, I want to delete all the folders existing in C:\ (i.e. delete the
folders 'Documents and Settings', 'Program Files', 'WINNT' & all the
other system files & folders/sub-folders existing in C:\) without
uninstalling the programs existing in Win2K & without removing the user
profiles & then transfer all the MP3s existing in the D:\ drive to the
C;\ drive (so that I can install the heavy-duty programs in D & then
re-install Win2K in the C:\ drive.

What I would like to know is would such an approach be advisable?

The bottom line is I don't want WinXP Pro (which is installed in the
D:\ drive) or the programs I have already installed in WinXP to get
affected in any way if I take this approach. Neither should the MP3s in
the C:\ drive be affected in any way.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have Win2K Pro installed in the C:\ drive & WinXP Pro installed in
the D:\ drive of my m/c. Due to some reasons, Win2K just refuses to
start though while booting it shows the 'Windows is starting up...'
screen along with the Win2K logo after which Win2K restarts itself. The
C:\ & D:\ drives are partitioned with each having hard disk size of
9.32GB. All my MP3s exist in the D:\ drive. All these MP3s occupy
almost 6GB of the hard disk space (out of the available 9.32GB in D:\).
Since almost 70% of the hard disk space in D:\ is occupied by MP3s, I
am running short of hard disk space in the D:\ drive to install other
heavy-duty programs like .NET2.0, it's SDK, documentation, tutorials,
SQL Server 2005 & it's SDK, documentation & tutorials, Visual Web
Developer 2003 Express Edition etc.

Since I am not being allowed to log into Win2K, to free up space in
D:\, I want to delete all the folders existing in C:\ (i.e. delete the
folders 'Documents and Settings', 'Program Files', 'WINNT' & all the
other system files & folders/sub-folders existing in C:\) without
uninstalling the programs existing in Win2K & without removing the user
profiles & then transfer all the MP3s existing in the D:\ drive to the
C;\ drive (so that I can install the heavy-duty programs in D & then
re-install Win2K in the C:\ drive.

What I would like to know is would such an approach be advisable?

The bottom line is I don't want WinXP Pro (which is installed in the
D:\ drive) or the programs I have already installed in WinXP to get
affected in any way if I take this approach. Neither should the MP3s in
the C:\ drive be affected in any way.

Your plan contains some contradictions:
- If you remove the folder c:\Program Files then your existing Win2000
programs will no longer exist.
- If you remove c:\documents and settings then your user profiles
cease to exist.

Your current problems are caused by an awkward mixture of OSs
and data. You would be much better off doing this:
- Buy a 100 GByte disk and install it as a slave drive. Use it for your
.MP3 files. Disk are cheap!
- Try to repair Win2000 on drive C:. If you cannot repair it, re-install
it, then re-install all its applications.
- Before re-installing Win2000 on C:, save the hidden files c:\ntldr,
c:\ntdetect.com and c:\boot.ini in a safe place. Put them back again
when Win2000 is up and running. If you don't then you cannot boot
into WinXP.

 

[rn5a]

- If you remove the folder c:\Program Files then your existing Win2000

programs will no longer exist.
- If you remove c:\documents and settings then your user profiles
cease to exist.

No problem....I don't intend to use the programs existing in Win2K. I
just want Win2K to be a stand-by OS so that if I encounter any problems
in WinXP in the future, I can search the Net & hopefully get a solution
to resolve that problem using Win2K.

- Before re-installing Win2000 on C:, save the hidden files c:\ntldr,
c:\ntdetect.com and c:\boot.ini in a safe place. Put them back again
when Win2000 is up and running.

I have come across many articles advising the same i.e. save NTLDR &
NTDETECT.COM in a safe place but strangely, I don't find either of the
2 files existing in the C;\ drive where Win2K is installed right now. I
even searched the hidden & system folders & files but couldn't locate
the 2 anywhere. I couldn't find boot.ini also anywhere but Win2K has
always been working fine since last two years or so until about 3-4
days back.

So just tell me whether the procedure I have talked about in post #1 in
this thread to delete all the files & folders (including the system
files & folders) and not uninstall the apps in C:\ & then re-install
Win2K in C:\ - will it be a safe approach? I don't want to lose my MP3s
existing in C:\ when I re-install Win2K in C:\ at any cost.

- Buy a 100 GByte disk and install it as a slave drive. Use it for your
.MP3 files. Disk are cheap!

I don't know in which part of the world do you stay & where you find
100GB hard disk cheap but atleast in the place where I stay, I don't
find them cheap

Thanks for your ideas....

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

No problem....I don't intend to use the programs existing in Win2K. I
just want Win2K to be a stand-by OS so that if I encounter any problems
in WinXP in the future, I can search the Net & hopefully get a solution
to resolve that problem using Win2K.


I have come across many articles advising the same i.e. save NTLDR &
NTDETECT.COM in a safe place but strangely, I don't find either of the
2 files existing in the C;\ drive where Win2K is installed right now. I
even searched the hidden & system folders & files but couldn't locate
the 2 anywhere. I couldn't find boot.ini also anywhere but Win2K has
always been working fine since last two years or so until about 3-4
days back.

As I said, these files are hidden. If they were not there then your
machine would not boot! You must instruct Explorer to show you
hidden and system files. If you do not know how then you should
click Start / Help / Search, type "hidden" and read what it says about
displaying hidden files. You can also do it like so:
- Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
- Type these commands:
attrib c:\nt*.* -s -h -r
attrib c:\*.ini -s -h -r

So just tell me whether the procedure I have talked about in post #1 in
this thread to delete all the files & folders (including the system
files & folders) and not uninstall the apps in C:\ & then re-install
Win2K in C:\ - will it be a safe approach? I don't want to lose my MP3s
existing in C:\ when I re-install Win2K in C:\ at any cost.

Yes, you can boot your machine into WinXP, then manually delete
c:\Program Files and c:\WinNT. You should then empty your Recycle
Bin. However, there is a bigger issue here. You do not appear to
believe in backups. Sooner or later you will learn the lesson that
flying without backups is a very dangerous thing to do. The lesson
could be very, very painful. We deal with this issue every week in
these newsgroups.

I don't know in which part of the world do you stay & where you find
100GB hard disk cheap but atleast in the place where I stay, I don't
find them cheap

I live in Australia and I can get a new 3.5" 80 GByte hard disk for
less than A$60.00. A newspaper costs A$1.40, a return plane ticket
to Europe about A$2,400. Compare!

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

As I said, these files are hidden. If they were not there then your
machine would not boot! You must instruct Explorer to show you
hidden and system files. If you do not know how then you should
click Start / Help / Search, type "hidden" and read what it says about
displaying hidden files. You can also do it like so:
- Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
- Type these commands:
attrib c:\nt*.* -s -h -r
attrib c:\*.ini -s -h -r


Yes, you can boot your machine into WinXP, then manually delete
c:\Program Files and c:\WinNT. You should then empty your Recycle
Bin. However, there is a bigger issue here. You do not appear to
believe in backups. Sooner or later you will learn the lesson that
flying without backups is a very dangerous thing to do. The lesson
could be very, very painful. We deal with this issue every week in
these newsgroups.


I live in Australia and I can get a new 3.5" 80 GByte hard disk for
less than A$60.00. A newspaper costs A$1.40, a return plane ticket
to Europe about A$2,400. Compare!

Cool

1 Plane ticket = 40 HD's = 1680 newspapers !!

So if you buy a newspaper every day of the week and on Saturday, then you
only need to stop buying newspapers for 280 weeks and you get yourself a
*free* ticket to Europe. Then again if you stop buying newspapers for 7
weeks, you have a *free* HD !!

........ sorry couldn't resist !

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Cool

1 Plane ticket = 40 HD's = 1680 newspapers !!

So if you buy a newspaper every day of the week and on Saturday, then you
only need to stop buying newspapers for 280 weeks and you get yourself a
*free* ticket to Europe. Then again if you stop buying newspapers for 7
weeks, you have a *free* HD !!

....... sorry couldn't resist !

If you like then I'll give you the figures for going without beer
or cigarettes for x days before you can buy a hard disk. I thought
this might sound too cruel for the OP, hence I did not mention it!

But seriously: I think the OP is doing himself a big disservice if
he attempts to shoehorn his .MP3 files onto the same partition
as his OSs. He is suffering already and things will get worse, not better.

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

If you like then I'll give you the figures for going without beer
or cigarettes for x days before you can buy a hard disk.

Nah.. that calculation I can make myself ;-)

I thought
this might sound too cruel for the OP, hence I did not mention it!

But seriously: I think the OP is doing himself a big disservice if
he attempts to shoehorn his .MP3 files onto the same partition
as his OSs. He is suffering already and things will get worse, not better.

absolutely !
Things will get worse, and the OP will be back asking questions on system
recovery in this NG.

 

[rn5a]

As I said, these files are hidden. If they were not there then your

machine would not boot!

Pegasus, I know that without these files, the m/c won't boot only &
that they are system & hidden files. I did search the system & hidden
files but couldn't locate them. As you suggested, I opened Command
Prompt & at the D:\> prompt, I copied (from your post) & pasted the
following 2 commands (one by one)

attrib c:\nt*.* -s -h -r

attrib c:\*.ini -s -h -r

replacing 'c' with 'd' (without the quotes, of course) since WinXP is
installed in the D:\ drive. Maybe you won't believe me but on both the
occasions I was told

File not found - D:\nt*.*

File not found - D:\*.ini

respectively. Now how does my m/c boot then? I am really perplexed.

Also at the D:\> prompt, when I changed the drive from 'd' to 'c' in
the 2 commands & executed them, nothing happened. If you are at the
D:\> prompt & without entering any command, you just press the 'Enter'
key from the keyboard, just about nothing happens & you find the next
line in the Command Prompt go back to the D:\>. The same thing happened
when I changed the drive name from 'd' to 'c' & executed the 2 commands
you had suggested.

Bin. However, there is a bigger issue here. You do not appear to
believe in backups. Sooner or later you will learn the lesson that
flying without backups is a very dangerous thing to do. The lesson
could be very, very painful.

Of course, I do believe in back-ups & have backed-up all my files in
CDs. I have experienced the pain of not backing-up once upon a time
(when I just started working with computers) & that pain was more than
enough for me to realize the importance of back-ups.

I must admit, Edwin does have a good sense of humor

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Pegasus, I know that without these files, the m/c won't boot only &
that they are system & hidden files. I did search the system & hidden
files but couldn't locate them. As you suggested, I opened Command
Prompt & at the D:\> prompt, I copied (from your post) & pasted the
following 2 commands (one by one)

attrib c:\nt*.* -s -h -r
attrib c:\*.ini -s -h -r

replacing 'c' with 'd' (without the quotes, of course) since WinXP is
installed in the D:\ drive. Maybe you won't believe me but on both the
occasions I was told

File not found - D:\nt*.*
File not found - D:\*.ini
respectively. Now how does my m/c boot then? I am really perplexed.

This is not surprising. Your boot partition is most likely drive C:,
hence that's where these files are located, regardless of where
Windows is installed.

Also at the D:\> prompt, when I changed the drive from 'd' to 'c' in
the 2 commands & executed them, nothing happened.

Yes, something did happen: You made the files visible!

 

[rn5a]

Yes, something did happen: You made the files visible!

Oh! yes..you are right! After posting my previous reply, when I had a
look at C: in My Computer, I find NTLDR & NTDETECT.COM cooling their
heels in C:\ but then why didn't I find them when I searched for them
(& I searched the hidden & system files & folders too)?

Your boot partition is most likely drive C:,
hence that's where these files are located, regardless of where
Windows is installed.

So it's like that - the 2 files reside only in the boot partition.. I
didn't know this. I was under the impression that each of the OSs have
their corresponding NTLDR & NTDETECT.COM.

Thanks for letting me know this.