Re: Cannot Format Entire Drive

phal wrote:

Well, I have looked and there is mention of a utility on XP for formatting, but no exact info. I just deleted my 59 gig partition.
removed the win 98 boot disk.
change boot bios to cd rom
inserted Win XP Pro
on set up screen right now. I Can:
Set Up windows XP now, press enter
Repair a windows XP installation using Recovery Console press R
quit setup
This is not where I want to be. This is the only screen I have seen thus far.
I have never seen an option to format or partition.
What am I doing wrong. Does it not tell you it is going to format?
gary

At that screen hit Enter to set up Windows, you will get options to do what you want.

Steve




"Anna" wrote:


"phal" <phal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F5BD3580-4FD7-4E80-A73E-5F54E37CC8B6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

XP Home originally on drive. I am trying to install Professional.
Compaq Presario, 2.2 ghz, 200 gig HD, 512 ram.
I am working on a computer for family friend. It was totally infested
with
spyware, viri, you name it.
200 gig hard drive, 59 gig of space being used
I used a Win 98 boot disk to format.
I noticed that only the 59 gig was formatted, the other 130 gig would
not
show up as being available.
I have removed all partitions and reinstalled still getting only 59
gig.
At the moment I have a 59 gig partition on the computer. I tried to
make a
larger Logical drive but the computer says no space is available to do
so.
I have jacked with computer for years now, but I am no expert by any
means.
The friends who know more than me say that the 98 Boot disk is not the
problem.
Looking for suggestions.
Thanks....gary 


"Anna" wrote

Gary:
Is there some specific reason why you're using a Win98 startup disk to
partition/format the 200 GB HD?

Assuming there are no OEM issues involved here and you are using a retail
copy of Windows XP Professional -- if you're performing a fresh install
of
XP as you apparently are, would it not be more advisable to boot up with
the
XP installation CD, delete the partitions and make a fresh install XP?
Anna

P. S.
I'm sure you understand this -- but just in case you don't -- when you
delete the partition(s), *all* data on those partitions will be gone. So
if
there's any data you or your friend's want/need on that 59 GB partition
you
mention (or, for that matter on any other partition), please make sure
you've backed the data up *before* you begin deleting partitions.


"phal" <phal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:CA81EAEB-DAB3-4D08-85DF-90A70591EFF1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(snip)


I just ran the Western Digital utility on the disk. Supposedly wrote zeros
to whole disk. I set partition and made it active, I am still showing only 59 gig.

Can I set partition and format the disk with Win XP disk only, no boot disk?
If so, could you tell me how?


phal (Gary?):
Well, the first thing to do is to use the Western Digital HD diagnostic utility to determine if the disk is defective. Assuming it isn't...

You *can* (and should) partition/format the disk using the Windows XP installation disk and subsequently install the OS. Do a Google search for "install windows xp" and you'll be directed to many sites that give step-by-step instructions for the installation process.
Anna 



.

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