Reply With QuoteI'm glad I'm not you, Bub :o
I'm not very good at this and "wipe/reinstalls" scare me. I found myself with a CMD.exe virus and it was affecting my computer in bad ways. Anti-virus couldn't fix it so I figured it was time for a reinstall. I backed everything to my F drive and reached for my Windows XP disc.
I grabbed the Professional Edition MS sent me for a project I did last year... not the home version I had originally used.
Because I'm dumb I didn't pay really close attention to what it was doing. It loaded onto the F drive, not the C drive. It left everything intact (thank god). I noticed this on reboot. I opened the case, switched F to Master and C to Slave and then tried to format C (using Windows). It wouldn't complete the format... it says it can't.
Now when I reboot it asks me which Windows XP (pro or home) to load. I don't want a dual boot. Can anyone tell me how to nuke Windows off my Drive C for good? Do I need to use a boot disk and do a DOS wipe? I thought with XP, DOS was over with?
EDIT to ADD:
No partitions. C and F are seperate hard drives who love together in sin.
What I'm asking, basically, is how do I wipe C: completely. I'll leave F and XP Pro as my boot hard drive and use C as the backup. Should I do it with a boot 3.5 disc then? I'd heard with Windows XP you could format without a 3.5" disc and DOS
I'm glad I'm not you, Bub :o
Andrew,
You can probably use fdisk to delete the partition, then create a new partition. This should wipe windows off your old C:\ drive, and make it ready for a nice, fresh reinstall.
If you run into issues with the master boot record trying to dual boot, fdisk /mbr cleans the master boot record. Do this ONLY if you're sure you want to nuke the mbr, though!
If you need a bootdisk, you can get one (easily) from www.bootdisk.com.
No sorry, no partitions. C and F are seperate hard drives who love together in sin.
Andrew, the problem is the C drive has all the boot files on it. This is why you can't format it in Windows. When you do manage to dust the C: drive, you will no longer be able to boot to the F: drive.
Here is what you must do:
Install Windows on the C drive. Use the CD and pay attention to the options you get. You don't want to upgrade you want a new install. You will get a chance to format during setup. If you're worried about a virus, you should take this opportunity to format the drive. Choose NTFS.
Once you install on the C drive, you will just have a single boot system. The files on F will still be there, but you won't be able to boot to it anymore. At that point, just move your data back to C: then format F: to get rid of all the mess.
Great! I'd prefer to do it that way actually.
Just in case you missed it, you'll get a chance to format during install if you ask for a new install. Do the format. Choose NTFS.Originally Posted by Bub, Andrew
Since you're reinstalling anyway, don't do anything as Administrator. It's a lot harder to catch viruses when you don't have administrative privledges. I've got two batch files on my desktop that let me install and whatever when I need too:
runas /u:Hronk\Administrator cmd
runas /u:Hronk\Administrator "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore"
You'll probably have to give full control permissions to your games directory for the Users group, but that's it.
Why NTFS? It costs more resources.Just in case you missed it, you'll get a chance to format during install if you ask for a new install. Do the format. Choose NTFS.
Better security, bigger files, more options. You're not going to realize any performance difference.Why NTFS? It costs more resources.
Also my favorite: More Stable.
Also "how often are you limited by hard drive speed, anyway?"
I did some search to strengthen my argument and came back reformed.
Choose NTFS!
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm
And that comes from a nice, impartial site like NTFS.com! ;)
I prefer NTFS, myself.
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