Re: suggestion on formatting Win2003 hard drive for rebuild

From: Miha Pihler [MVP] (mihap-news_at_atlantis.si)
Date: 01/19/05


Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:33:56 +0100

Chris,

I am a big fan of clean install compared to e.g. upgrade. In my experience
there was nothing left if I first deleted all the partitions and after that
created new ones and formatted them. Same goes for Windows 2000 and XP.

I agree that system partition can vary depending on role of the server.
10-15 GB can be field up quite fast (specially with time after you add
patches, service packs...). This "rule" may not apply in your case specially
since you have pagefile in separate partition...

-- 
Mike
Microsoft MVP - Windows Security
"Chris" <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:1440D7C0-2F70-4AD4-B818-8D35667E2FBA@microsoft.com...
> My experince with XP, Win2K, etc. are that if you let it do it, it dones't 
> do
> it very well. It leaves traces of the old OS and files. Are you saying 
> that
> it will 100% remove all traces of the OS. I've been there and after
> rebuilding another Win2000 server it doesn't and I was forced to start
> building it all over again.  And the Win2K workstation is even worse, dead
> boot files left, etc.
>
> I want to get all the drive space back and clean it 100%.
>
> Also, why not less than 10-15G?
>
> I've been creating; c: = 8G with OS, D: = 20G for files, etc. and E: = 6G
> for page file. It's a 36G SCSI drive, xeon 2.8, 1G of Ram, running as a 
> lot
> of things (DC, DNS.DHCP, IIS, SQL Server) but all local for development.
>
> thanx.
>
> "Miha Pihler [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> Just use Windows 2003 CD and boot from it and start installation process.
>> During first few screens, you will have an option to specify where (which
>> partition) to install Windows 2003 to. Here you can delete all old
>> partitions, create new ones and format them. I usually don't recommend
>> creating system partitions smaller then 10-15 GB.
>>
>> Note: to boot from CD, you might have to change your BIOS boot order
>> settings. Put CD in first place and e.g. HDD in second place.
>>
>> I hope this helps.
>>
>> -- 
>> Mike
>> Microsoft MVP - Windows Security
>>
>> "Chris" <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:E471DADB-7970-4361-9E16-7AF34CAB251E@microsoft.com...
>> > I've come to terms with the idea to wip clean my Win2003 Server to 
>> > rebuild
>> > it. Issue with promoting it to DC causing way too many issues!
>> > So what is the bets way to low level format the hard drive so I can be
>> > 100%
>> > sure it's clean. I do not want to have the issue with multiple boot
>> > records,
>> > etc.
>> > I used to get an old win98 disk and find format and do this.
>> > What tools does MS offer, etc?
>> >
>> > Thanx!
>>
>>
>> 


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