Windows is gone for the south, format question!

[v6killa]

Hello, I have a question I was really hoping you guys could help me on. You see I have 3 partitions on my 120gb hard drive with windows xp installed on the first partition. The first partition C:Main drive has windoows xp installed, this is the only system drive. Drive D:Applications, are my programs. Drive E:Storage, are games and other stuff. BTY C:, and D: are fat32, and E: is ntfs. Now the thing is, I want to format drive C: where my OS is so I can start out fresh. I know that if I boot with windows xp cd, I can format it, but Ive heard that if you do that the MBR will be changed, and my other drives will become unusable or something like that? Is it possible to just format my C: drive to renistall a fresh copy of my OS, without it intefering with my other partitions, or do I have to format everything?

I really appreciate it if you can give me some your opinions and feedback on this matter.

Thank You

[teengeek88]

i reformatted my C: drive and it didnt effect my d: drive at all....i actually wiped drive C: clean cuz it was my brothers but when i put in the XP setup disk i just deleted C and then formatted it in FAT32 (because thats what D: was)


i didnt have any problems to tell you the truth it wen very smooth. I would back up the drives and then try it if you can

tell me how it goes

-Rob-

[Dax_Brandy]

Is it possible to just format my C: drive to renistall a fresh copy of my OS, without it intefering with my other partitions, or do I have to format everything?

it is very possible.. XP will present to you the list of partitions you have. and all you have to do is select the partition where you are going to install XP and that'll be your C drive. just make sure you select the correct partition or else...

[v6killa]

Thanks for the info you guys. Im just concered about the MBR, or the master boot record, I remember some1 saying that there os would not boot until they fixed it??

Do you guys know anything about that?

[Dax_Brandy]

unless the mbr is corrupted, then you have to fix it.. but if everything is established and setup properly, you dont need to worry about the mbr and installing OS.

i have an experience where the hdd mbr was corrupted due to partition magic. i tried to create a partition but PM has created errors during the operation.