DaFunkyUnit

I have a 40Gig HD partitioned into two drives. I want to clean out the HD and clean install WinXP. I also want to convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS and make one big partition. How do I go about doing this?

Tommy Boomfiger

delete both partitions and create a new one using 100% of the drive using fdisk, then complete format to ntfs using xp install disc. very simple, the hard part is waiting

jase71

EDIT:/ ignore the below... I was thinking you were trying to preserve the data on the partitions.


If neither partition is anywhere near full, it's possible.

If you can squeeze all the data from both partitions onto one parition, copy the data from the second to the first.

Then use something like parition magic to whack the second, enlarge the 1st, and then convert the 1st to NTFS.

Then, install XP without reformatting the partition, and you should be ok.

If you can't fit the data from both partitions onto one... then you'll have to back up what you can using a cdburner, or a spare hard drive, and then follow basically the same steps.

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DaFunkyUnit

uh.... fdisk? i believe M$ removed fdisk from winXP. I cant seem to find it anywhere

um.... i think i messed up royally. I ran WinXP setup, thinking it will just overwrite everything. Turns out, it installed ANOTHER copy of XP on the D: drive now, but it did convert it to NTFS. The c: drive is still sitting there in all of its FAT32 glory.

Can i fix this w/o using other software such as partition magic? (coz i dont have it)

Tommy Boomfiger

oooh, i forgot they took out fdisk, sorry about that. i believe you can just use xp install program to take care of this. use the disc to boot the computer and when prompted for where to install, there should be an option to delete a partition somewhere. delete all the partitions and create a new one and format using ntfs. or you could use a 2k disk for fdisk

DaFunkyUnit

rite now, i'm reformatting c:\

i did it with this command:

"format -FS:ntfs c:"

wat a way to spend a saturday nite

DaFunkyUnit

ok, ive deleted the D: partition. Now I'm left with just the C: partition, and it wont let me remove it.
How do I combine everything into one partition??? Plz help!

Tommy Boomfiger

are you trying to delete it while inside windows? if you are, it wont work. you have to get out of windows. do it from the xp install program.

LPMiller

It won't. You'll need a monitor hooked up while you do it, till you can setup up the drivers/settings for TV Out.

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DaFunkyUnit

i had to bum a copy of Partition Magic to combine everything into one partition. Then I reinstalled Windows. Oh, and DF, this is for my little bro's comp, so I'm just trying to keep it simple. Both partitions were in FAT32 before, and it was really unstable, especially the way my bro uses his comp. BTW, why would you set the data part of your drive as FAT32? Isnt NTFS better for larger disks?