im trying to format my windows xp but it's not working. My floppy drive doesnt work, so the only way to format my hd is to use the New Installation from the Windows XP disc. The problem is i cant seem to delete the partitioned hard drive. I tried pressing D, but it wouldnt work. Is there another way to format my hard drive without using my floppy drive? Ive searched the forum, but im still having trouble. Please help me:furious:

I'm not exactly sure how you attempted the installation, so I'll quickly outline the procedure. Insert the installation cd and it should launch the setup. If not, type in Run the command D:\setup.exe. This is assuming the drive has the letter D.
On the menu, click install windows and select new installation. You can then select wether you wish to format in FAT32 or NTFS.

Are you trying to do a new install of XP? If so why not just take the format partition option in setup.

for a different approach. You can d/l a boot disc image and then burn it to a CD, and this'll give you a boot disk on cdr/rw. I know you can do it with nero, but i'm not sure about any other burning software.

After pressing 'D' to delete it gives you a warning message and you have to press 'L' to delete the partition

the problem is that it wouldnt let me delete the partition. When i tried to create a new partition, it says that i dont have enough space. Nightheart, do you know where i can download the boot disc and burn it onto a cd? That would be very helpful.

Here (www.bootdisk.com), brought to you in 0.29 seconds by google (www.google.com).

every time I try to delete it, it gives me a message saying that the action can't be done because the hardrive contains certain temporary files needed to complete the installation. Btw, thanks Virgin San

Why do you need to delete and recreate the partition? If it is the only partition on the drive then XP installs temp files to it as part of the installation. If you only need to format then the option to do that comes up after you have selected the existing partition. It will say that there is already and existing installation, so you want to use this partition, you say yes and the next screen will ask if you want to format or leave intact. No need to delete and create partitions.

i want a clean installation of winxp. I dont want to overwrite the files, cause my program files will still be there.

Originally posted by xxxicethixxx
i want a clean installation of winxp. I dont want to overwrite the files, cause my program files will still be there.

And as memphis said you will be given the option to format or leave intact - you format which means everything on the partition is deleted ... which is what you want to achieve, and then XP is installed to the freshly formatted partition.

Yeah, a format will wipe everything thats what it is.