I wanna format my pc.

[Alwinpos]

Well. here's the thing.

This computer is to messed up, and tried many ways in orde to fix it. sadly, i still is bugged, anyway...

I have a 300GB sata HD, devided into 3 partitions:

C: 90GB
D: 30GB
F: 170GB

I installed windows with a non service pack installation cd, and for that reason it only showed 120GB.
I know this problem so it' wasn't a big deal to get the rest of it to show up.
The partition that showed was just a "not used partition", wich was actually C: & D:

I wanna know, since i want to format my pc, if there is any way to keep the "not - showing" space still on the partition. I barrowed a windows installation cd with SP2. but i didn't tried it yet.
I wanna format my C partition only without losing the F: and D: paritions, and data.

If there is anyway to do that, i would kindly appreciate it if you people could tell me this.


I created this thread, since i had no idea what to search for (no specific keywords or anything in mind) so i wanna apalogize if threads like this already where posted.
Also note that i'm not from US or England so my grammer could be bad.

Many, many thanks in advance.
Alwin p.

 

[Mize]

"Format" does not change partition information. To do that you have to use a partitioner like FDISK.

In theory what you want to do should not be difficult. You should be able to boot to the XP SP2 disk and Format the C: parition and install XP on to C. D and F should remain unchanged.

 

[Alwinpos]

Thank you for the fast reply.

The things is, after formatting your pc, other partitions useally require to be formatted in order to gain acces to it. (Don't know if this comes with only new assigned partitions)

Will the data still remain on D & F after installation, or does it require a format to gain acces?

 

[Bludd]

When you boot from the Windows XP cd you should eventually get to the partition manager. Just delete the partition where Windows is installed (presumably you have backed up everything you need), do a quick format when it asks and your stuff on the other partitions should be safe.

Remember, be REALLY sure about which partition you want to delete (name them, don't just rely on drive letters since drive letters may be different when displayed in the partition manager).

 

[Mize]

Thank you for the fast reply.

The things is, after formatting your pc, other partitions useally require to be formatted in order to gain acces to it. (Don't know if this comes with only new assigned partitions)

Will the data still remain on D & F after installation, or does it require a format to gain acces?

You don't have to format other partitions if they are already formated in either FAT32 or NTFS (they are unless you're runinng Unix, or Linux or something else). Just reinstall on C and those drives will be there.

 

[Mize]

When you boot from the Windows XP cd you should eventually get to the partition manager. Just delete the partition where Windows is installed (presumably you have backed up everything you need), do a quick format when it asks and your stuff on the other partitions should be safe.

Remember, be REALLY sure about which partition you want to delete (name them, don't just rely on drive letters since drive letters may be different when displayed in the partition manager).

I wouldn't do this. Forget partition manager because you don't need it and, as Bludd says, you have to be careful to delete the right partition (size is the best way to identify them if they're not named well).
Instead just format C and reinstall. If you never go into the partition manager you cannot delete the partition.

Of course you want to be really sure you format C, but I think the installer will help with this.