[kaad_g]

I used Partition Magic to create a second partition on my drive. My thought was to keep data on the extended partition and if for some reason I had to do a clean install of Windows, I could just reformat the partition where the OS resides and not bother my data on the extended partition. As an experiment I booted off the XP Pro CD to do a clean install of Windows. But the program only saw one drive with one partition, so I had to reformat the entire drive. (Just testing on my new build so I didn't lose anything).

Obviously I'm not understanding something here. Is there any way to do a clean install on the main partition without destroying the extended one?

Kaad_g

[BabyBoy--]

yeah there should be no problem
during the installation you should be able to select a partition.
maybe you didn't fully succeed in the partitioning of your drive?

[kaad_g]

Well, I was using the partition for a few days, saving to it, and then doing an image backup of the drive with no problems.

When I booted via the disk, it only saw the one dirve C, and nothing more. Perhaps there was an option I missed during boot-up?

Kaad_G

[pbuckne]

Since you blew away all that was there before, you can restart the install process, deleting the partition, and tell the XP setup to repartition the drive, using whatever partition size you want. You will want to format both partitions before proceeding to install windows on the first partition.

[DosFreak]

Usually you can do exactly what you described...sounds like XP didn't like the PM partition for some reason.

[thatsteveguy]

Most likely he created the partitions but didn't actually format it after so winxp would have ignored it and seen it as one..
s

[kaad_g]

So are you saying that after I make a new extended partition with Partition Magic (I already installed XP again with one partition), I should then format the new partition?

Kaad_G