Reformatting hard drive with corrupted OS

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Guest

A recent hard crash led me to do a fresh installation of WinXP on my second
hard drive, which became the D: drive. I have reinstalled all of my programs
on that drive and transferred all of my files to it from the C: drive. The C:
drive now contains only the corrupted OS and files I no longer need. When I
boot up, I am given the choice of which drive to boot up on. Of course I
select the D: drive. I would like to reformat the C: drive, wiping all data
from it. Is there any downside to doing what I suggest? Is there anything
else I need to do (modify files, etc.) before I do the reformat?
 
Yes, the downside is that you won't be able to boot your computer, as the boot files are on the C: drive.

Leave:

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI

on the C: drive. Do not format, just delete anything you don't want. You can edit BOOT.INI to remove the old reference to the installation on the C: drive.
 
All these files are also on my D: drive, and are later versions (at least the
first two) than are on the C: drive. The D: drive is where the fresh WinXP
installation is. Also, I believe that the only way to access the boot.ini
file is through the "system" icon on the control panel. Since I can't get
into the control panel associated with the corrupted OS on the C: drive, I
don't see how I can edit that file on the C: drive. When I do a cold boot, a
screen appears that gives me a choice between two WinXP OS's. Using the
default one (I've assumed that this is the one on the D: drive) the computer
boots up normally. If I select the other one (I've only done this once) WinXP
will not boot. Am I missing something?
 
By default, the C: drive is your boot drive, and the files in the root directory are what would control the boot. If you, via the BIOS or other means, made the other drive the primary drive, then you may well be able to format what you're calling the C: drive.

In any case, BOOT.INI is a hidden, read-only text file. These attributes can be changed, and the file edited directly in Notepad.

If you're unsure, post the contents of the BOOT.INI files from both drives, specifying which is which.
 
Recall that, in trying to recover from an unbootable computer (Safe Mode
didn't work), I booted from my WinXP installation disk and installed WinXP on
my second hard drive, which was then my F: drive but somehow became my D:
drive. My sense is that the screen I encounter during the boot process gives
me the option of booting from either the C: drive (which contains a corrupted
OS) and doesn't work, or the D: drive (which has a freshly installed OS),
which does work. I could edit the boot.ini file in the D: drive by accessing
it through the Control Panel's "System" icon. I don't think I can edit the
boot.ini file on the C: drive because I would have to go the same route on
the C: drive and I can't do that because the OS on the C: drive is corrupted
and I can't boot from it.
 
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