How do you reformat only the C hard drive ?

Hi,

can anyone help me? i have continuous problems with my computer. and i need to learn how to reformat my computer with Windows XP, but i would like to reformat my C and D harddrive, without reformatting my E harddrive =X i need to learn how to do this, and im not very computer handy =/

if you know anything about computers please contact me =X

thank you

DJ

The easiest way to do this is to use your installation CD for Windows XP. Put the CD in your drive, restart the machine and press F11 once your keyboard flashes (do this twice just to make sure); you'll hear a single beep for each time F11 is pressed. Once the boot select menu comes up, select your IDE CD-ROM drive, which will boot up the Windows Installation program.

This will allow you to format your partitions. When it gets to the part about deleting partitions, delete the C:\ drive partition (make note of the sizes of your current drives before restarting your machine with the disc in so that you are certain which drives are which), then do a fresh install of Windows on the unpartitioned segment of your hard drive (format in NTFS). Read the on-screen instructions carefully and you should be able to get through this process relatively easily.

NOTE: I'd suggest not creating a partition from the unpartitioned space, as this tends to show that there are two versions of XP installed on the machine, which is just plain annoying. Instead, just install Windows XP on the unpartitioned space.

Once you've reinstalled XP, you can load up Windows and open Windows Explorer. Right-click on the D:\ drive and select Format. This will wipe the drive clean without altering the size of the partition.


VERY IMPORTANT: Please understand that by formatting your partitions, you will be erasing all data on the drives and anything which used to reside on the drives will now be gone forever. Only do this if you are 100% sure that you do not need anything from the drive(s) in question.


There are other ways to do this, but a simple type could lead to big mistakes.

I like to use Parted Magic.

The boot disk allows you to boot and look at Windows and Linux drives. You can view and backup files or reformat drives.
Make sure you leave a little bit of space in between partitions.

I am not sure if it works with Mac. Somebody should try.

Why not attempt the Disk Management?
Right click My Computer>Manage>Disk Management
You can delete partitions, format partitions, create partitions.
I think that would be easy.

Working with the C: partition when you are booted to it is not easiy done from Disk Management. Like the above poster said, it is easier to mess with the C partition from a separately booted tools disk: either the Win install CD or one of the other tools disks like the Ultimate Boot CD for DOS or Win, Hiren's, a commercial partitioning program e.g. Partition Magic or Partition Commander, or one of the live Linux CDs like Knoppix.
. I like to use Eraser or similar to wipe my partitions as there will be no reasonably recoverable data left on that partition. It takes a good while because it overwrites all the data several times (and can be set to overwrite the "empty" space as well because data from previously deleted files can remain in the so-called "empty" spaces), but any personal info won't be available afterwards. Some may still be surprised to know that lots of the old data could still be recovered after a delete partition, re-create partition and reinstall Windows cycle. The professional data recovery outfits like OnTrack do it every day. And there are end-user tools for data recovery as well like Get Data Back or R-Studio.

.bh.