Problem reformatting C: to reinstall XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brightbelt
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Brightbelt

Hello -
I hope this forum is an Ok place for this question, but I don't know where
else to ask, so I apologize if it is not the right place. I'm on Win XP Pro
SP2, and I'm troubleshooting a software conflict (the nature of which is
beyond the scope of this forum) and I'm down to the need to reformat my C:
drive and to re-install Win XP. I'm fairly good with computers, so I'm
embarrassed here - I thought all that was required was to reformat my C:
drive and reinstall XP.
But when I go into 'My Computer' and try to format my C: drive, it won't
let me and says to close out any and all programs running on the C: drive.
But I have none running on C: and my task bar is clear for the most part.
Do I need to clear out every program in the Add/Remove area of the control
panel first before reformatting ?
Also, am I over my head to try to re-install Win XP on my own ? (I've
installed lots of software, and even memory chips and pci cards before etc,
so.....hummm). I appreciate any help anyone could offer. Thanks,...Frank
 
Windows is running on drive C:, isn't it?

You can not cut off the tree branch while you are sitting on the branch.
Disaster!

If you close windows, you can't format from My Computer.

What to do? <idea> Boot up from the Windows XP CD, start the install
process and format from there. Windows is NOT running so format works fine.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
In Brightbelt had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Hello -
I hope this forum is an Ok place for this question, but I don't know
where else to ask, so I apologize if it is not the right place. I'm
on Win XP Pro SP2, and I'm troubleshooting a software conflict (the
nature of which is beyond the scope of this forum) and I'm down to
the need to reformat my C: drive and to re-install Win XP. I'm
fairly good with computers, so I'm embarrassed here - I thought all
that was required was to reformat my C: drive and reinstall XP.
But when I go into 'My Computer' and try to format my C: drive, it
won't let me and says to close out any and all programs running on
the C: drive. But I have none running on C: and my task bar is clear
for the most part. Do I need to clear out every program in the
Add/Remove area of the control panel first before reformatting ?
Also, am I over my head to try to re-install Win XP on my own ? (I've
installed lots of software, and even memory chips and pci cards
before etc, so.....hummm). I appreciate any help anyone could offer.
Thanks,...Frank
Click to expand...

Nah, make sure your PC is set to boot from CD, insert the disk into the
drive, reboot, at the prompt press any key to boot to CD (the ANY key is any
combination of 17 letters and 4 numbers plus the shift key... Okay, not
really...)

Anyhow, then you follow the prompts and install a new installation -
ensuring that you format the drive of course with a full format and not
leaving the file system intact - and have at it...

However...

Contrary to your statement above, your software conflict is not beyond the
scope of this forum (which is really usenet) if you wish to take the time to
ask about it. Believe it or not you're in the land of a million geeks who
are eager to debug software conflicts, strange stop errors, etc... So before
you go about reformatting completely (make sure you back up) you should
consider adding to this thread or, now, starting a new one with the troubles
you're having. To help you get started:

Making Good Posts:


There really isn't much beyond the scope of the people you will find here if
you take the time to ask clear and exact questions and to provide the proper
information. Sometimes it can take a couple of days, personally I've
followed posts through for a whole month until we got to a resolution that
avoided re-installing, but it's worth it in the end unless, of course, you
have a love for reinstalling the OS. Not to mention that you can repair
install XP too and generally keep your data.

Repair Installation of XP:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/xprepair.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes
 
Frank, you cannot format C: from within WinXP if it's the Operating
System Partition. What you have to do is first go into
the Bios and set your cdrom drive to be first boot device. Then boot from
the WinXP CD and select New Install>Advanced. Which will allow you to choose
which partition or drive to install XP to and also will ask you about
formatting. Go here for an excellent description of this process.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_pro_install_-_graphic.htm
 
Hi -
I appreciate all your suggestions and I moved this post into the new post
titled "Booting from Win XP - drives not recognized" where I wrote:

"......I am booting from my Windows XP Pro
CD, but then when I get to where I can choose to install XP, it tells me
that it recognizes no hard drives."

And in response to Galen's generous offer in saying that software conflicts
are within the scope of this forum here, I'll expound on the above new post
as to what's happening. I'm sorry that I "moved" this post. I figured that
if I responded with new info to my own post, it would fool others into
thinking I was already helped. So please see the continuation above with
the post titled "Booting from XP CD - drives not recognized" Thanks,...Frank
 
In
Brightbelt said:
Hello -
I hope this forum is an Ok place for this question, but I don't know
where else to ask, so I apologize if it is not the right place. I'm
on Win XP Pro SP2, and I'm troubleshooting a software conflict (the
nature of which is beyond the scope of this forum) and I'm down to
the need to reformat my C: drive and to re-install Win XP. I'm
fairly good with computers, so I'm embarrassed here - I thought all
that was required was to reformat my C: drive and reinstall XP.
But when I go into 'My Computer' and try to format my C: drive, it
won't let me and says to close out any and all programs running on
the C: drive. But I have none running on C: and my task bar is clear
for the most part. Do I need to clear out every program in the
Add/Remove area of the control panel first before reformatting ?
Also, am I over my head to try to re-install Win XP on my own ? (I've
installed lots of software, and even memory chips and pci cards
before etc, so.....hummm). I appreciate any help anyone could offer.
Thanks,...Frank
Click to expand...

How to clean install XP.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
This may not follow proper channels for posting and I apologize for that, but
I need to butt in and ask a quick question, I followed the directions for a
clean install exactly and when it tried to reformat the drive, I got the
message that said "it was unable to format the drive because of a disk
error." Does this mean that my XP CD is bad or does it mean that the hard
drive itself is bad? Thanks for the help.
 
This may not follow proper channels for posting and I apologize for that, but
I need to butt in and ask a quick question, I followed the directions for a
clean install exactly and when it tried to reformat the drive, I got the
message that said "it was unable to format the drive because of a disk
error." Does this mean that my XP CD is bad or does it mean that the hard
drive itself is bad? Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

It means there's a problem on the hard drive. If you have a retail CD, you
have the recovery console available. It can be run from the CD. Use it to
run chkdsk on the drive and try setup again.

If still no luck, obtain tools from the website of the drive manufacturer
for testing the overall health of the drive.

The following article is not specifically about your problem but it does
have directions (in step 2) that tell how to run chkdsk from the recovery
console:

"STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}" Error Message When You Install
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830084/en-us
 
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