technical question about partitions and reformatting

Wedge

Wedge

1
I have my HDD partitioned into a C, F, G, and H.
The C partition is where I have WindowsXP Home installed.
I have programs on one drive, games on another, and personal data on that last (H).

I want to know if I can reformat the C drive and do a clean XP Home installation without having to reformat the data (H) drive.
I'm pretty sure that I WOULD have to reformat/reinstall programs on the F and G drives because the new XP installation wouldn't contain the paths to those programs, correct? But I'm hoping that this isn't the case for the H drive.

Set me straight on this please because I want to do a clean install before applying service pack 1.
I need to know if my H drive's data will be recognized after the new installation of XP on my C drive is complete. If not, then I know to back it up on cd-r (which is good to do, regardless).
 
S

shadoe_phantom

1
ya you should have no problems as when you install through dos you choose the drives you wish to format. Just don't choose to format H drive.
One thing I did notice though, is your partitions are odd. They should be C, D, E etc, but I know it's because of your cdrw/cdrom/dvdrom drives. I would suggest when you next format your drives, to unlpug the optical drives before installing windows again. Then plug them again before installation so that your HDD partitions come in the c, d, e order (and your optical drives will be last).

good luck
 
Wedge

Wedge

1
Ok, good. Then I don't have to worry about touching the H drive at all.

Am I correct about the F and G drives? They WILL have to be reformatted along with the C drive because they contain programs that will need to be associated to the fresh WindowsXP installation, correct?


About the optical drives....open the case, unplug them, then replug them, then install XP?
 
Deft

Deft

1
Yeah any program files etc. you'll have to replace since your clean XP will have no idea of where they are or have registry entries related to them etc. etc.
I am in a similar situation except i use c: for windows and all the associated programs, d: for data and all my program installers/setup.exe's, and finally e: for my FTP and audio work.
Now what i'm working on is sorting out a drive image of a stripped down xp installation to my bare minimums so that i can just re-image the drive when it gets too clogged up to get me back to my bare essentials. I'm thinking this approach would work nicely for your set-up too as the image you create and restore would still have all the right links and whatnot to run the programs.
 
T

TYT

1
Good info so far, I have seen people really mess up their computers with partition problems before. I, too, have my XP operating system on the C drive, with programs installed to the D drive. If you choose to format C, and do a clean XP install, the other drives will remain intact. I am guessing from your posts that you dont have NTFS on your drives? Any security measures you might have implimented on the other partitions will have to be disabled, or the new install will not be able to access that certian area. If you do have NTFS on one or more partitions, make sure none of the folders or files are encrypted or you will never get into those files again.

As for formatting the other drive, the one where you have your programs installed? Not necessary unless your looking to image that drive also. Due to the clean install, your previously installed programs will not have any registry entries in Windows. You can simply delete any folder you dont wish to keep. Games, and any folder you have files saved ( such as game saves or such. ) can be re-installed to. The game saves will still be there.

You = winnar!!@@@!

Deft has the right idea. Find yourself Norton Ghost or a similar proggy and make a clean image of a fresh install. Install the OS, put in all the necessary drivers, and burn the image to CD. The time it takes to re-mount an image compared to re-installing Winblows is very different. Much faster, with the same desired effects.

Good luck!


ahohohoooho

fuk da noobies

8-0

TYT
 
Wedge

Wedge

1
I am using NTFS. Each partition is such. No folder or files are encrypted as far as I know. Is there a way to check this?
 
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