What's Windows XP?

Im having problems formatting my hard disk under win xp pro.

I boot from the cd drive then follow all instructions however it wont allow me to delete the partition as it states that the partition has nessessary setup files and cannot be deleted,.

ive tried microsofts web site and many message boards and this seems to be a general problem as nobody seems to have an answer without a set of boot floppy's.

The lack of DOS makes this a problem

can you help at all

Many thanks

Jason

This question was answered on May 26, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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During a "clean" installation of Windows XP, you are prompted to choose from the following format options:

Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick)

Format the partition using the FAT file system (Quick)

Format the partition using the NTFS file system

Format the partition using the FAT file system

Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume you are formatting and the hard disk is then scanned for bad sectors The scan for bad sectors is responsible for the majority of the time it takes to format a volume.

If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors This option should only be used if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.

If you installed Windows on a partition that was formatted by using the Quick format option, you can also check your disk by using the chkdsk /r command after the installation of Windows has completed

About the author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on May 26, 2003

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