I want to upgraded a PC from NT4 to Win2K Pro and during setup I picked to clean install (instead of upgrade) since I also wanted to clean the harddrive and format it. The harddrive has a 4GB FAT32 primary partition. When I was asked about the partition/harddrive, I tried to delete the partition but it would not let me...I tried to format the harddrive and it would not let me. So, I aborted the install and plugged in my DOS disc to perform a manual format but after typing "format C:" the computer would just hang and not do anything. Also, everything looks normal/OK under fdisk. Do you know how I can format my harddrive when the DOS discs don't work?

NT4 never supported FAT32. Are you sure that it didn't have an NTFS partition? If it did, the dos bootdisk can't delete it. You need another program to do this, like Ranish Part Manager. you can get it at: http://www.utilitygeek.com/software/harddrive/partitioning/ranishpartitionmanager.shtml

Thanks for your response. When I right click on C: drive and goto properties, it states the drive is FAT and 3.95GB. So I assumed that it was FAT32 since it is larger than 1.95GB. I'll definitely check out your recommendation. Would this also be the reason why the Win2K installation CD wouldn't format the drive??

NT4 uses NTFS file system only, it can work with fat32 but does not use it. Having said that it should not make a difference (I don't think) in using the floppy disk to delete NTFS, however you may have some trouble doing it. Make sure you have a good working win9x boot floppy(sounds like you do), start up fdiskand look for #4 (I think) delete non-dos partitions and you should be good to go from there, thats what I did, had to do it about 5 times for it to clear up everything. One other thing is to reset the mbr before starting this will help, "fdisk /mbr" this should get rid anything to do with NT4.

Are you attempting this from within NT (already installed? Run W2K (whcih can see fat16/fat32/ntfs) set-up from a CD boot (if bios allows) or the 4 floppies - not from within an installed OS (NT or otherwise). W2K set-up allows you create/delete (reformat too) existing partitions be they fat16/fat32/ntfs. Fdisk via a '98 boot-disk will remove any fat32/fat16 partitions. NT cannot even see fat32 during set-up or any other time (without the use of add-in utils in an installed NT system). Delpart.exe will also remove any partition permanently: http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/index.htm 27K freebie download; fits on a floppy and is run after DOS/'9x boot-disk boot. Afterwards reconfigure HD (ntfs/fat32) either via W2K set-up; if intending fat32 for W2K, perhaps use a '98 boot-disk to set drive up first; then install W2K - often makes it all less trouble this way.

Thank You