How to format at install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan
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Dan

When I did a clean install of W2K Pro, it didn't ask me to format as I
thought. I want to reformat and partition the HD. Is there a way to make
install format HD first? Thanks.
 
When install offers the opportunity, delete that partition, then select
the unallocated space as your install target. It will then ask which
type of formatting you want. Then select, and go.
 
That's what I thought. But when it showed existing partition, I couldn't
delete by pressing "D".
 
Are you installing by either booting from the CD or from the 4 setup
diskettes? If not, it occurs to me that you may be running the install
*UNDER* W2k or some other OS, which will not allow you to maltreat the
current system partition. Just a thought; if, for example, you launch
the winnt.exe or winnt32.exe installer from within a running system,
that'll be the symptom (I believe.)
 
Yes, I had an OS and I wanted to replace it with W2K. I tried both CD and
disks bootup, but neither allowed me to format the HD. Thanks.
 
Hmm. I'm groping in the dark now. How about BIOS settings protecting
that HDD? (Boot sector antivirus setting?)

If all else fails, maybe a W98 fdisk? Believe you can find this on the
web if necessary.)

Ultimately, a 3rd party utility, like Partition Magic etc.

And before you consider leaping out a window, you can always mount the
HDD, on that or another machine, as something other than Primary
Master...then boot to something and wipe that partition.
 
If you start with a newly formatted drive and load a
Windows O/S, it's greedy and will take the whole thing.

I would fdisk, then create a primary boot partition of
some size, up to 510 MB, and install MS DOS (w/FAT file
structure), and have a CD-ROM driver identified in the
config.sys file.

Then, I'd use fdisk to create another partition intended
for Win2K, making sure not to use up the remaining space
on hard drive, but would save some for another
partition. Format the partition intended for Win2K in
NTFS file structure. The "other" partition can be
formated using fdisk, or in Win2K, once that O/S is
loaded.

I'd boot to C: DOS, with CDROM boot capability. Might
have to go into BIOS and set boot order to 1. floppy, 2.
CDROM, 3. Hard Drive. Then I'd put the Win2K install cd
in and reboot. The install cd might require 4 floppys to
go along with the install process. If so, you need to
have them handy, and when you reboot, start with floppy
empty. It'll prompt your for floppy #1, #2, etc.


Regards
 
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