HD format and win XP installation

[nafoka]

I have a pc with win XP Home sp1 on a 80Gb HD. I need to format the HD and then reinstall win XP. I just want one partition. Can anyone tell me how to do that? Thanks.

[bunyip]

You can prepare the new partition using your XP install CD - be aware though that once you do this, all data on that disk is lost - but I'm sure you know this.

If the disk is already a single 80gb partition then you don't need to re-partition, during the XP installation you will get the option to re-format the partition as part of the install process.

If you want to re-partition/format first then do the following:

1. Boot to the XP CD.

2. When it gets to the screen that asks whether you want to install or repair, select Repair.

3. Select the OS and then at the Command Prompt C:\> type 'DiskPart' and press enter.

4. You will see the existing partitions - you can highlight each partition and press D to delete (then L to confirm).

5. When you have deleted all partitions you will see a single entry that says 'Unpartitioned Space' - hightlight this and press 'C' to create a single partition over the whole disk (accept the default sizes) and press enter.

6. You should now have an entry that says "Partition 1 [New (Raw)], you may also have a little bit of Unpartitioned space left over - just ignore this.

7. The new partition is un-formatted at this stage but you can leave it this way because when you install Windows you will get an option to format the partition, however if you want to format at this stage see below.

8. Now press ESC to get out of the Disk Partition option and get back to the Command Line prompt.

9. If you want to format at this point then type "format c: /FS:NTFS" or "format c: /FS:FAT32" depending on the type of file system you want.

10. When finished type "EXIT" which will re-boot the PC. Again boot to the CD and this time select the Install XP option.

[nafoka]

Thanks!!! I think I can do it right!