1. If I flash updated my BIOS, is it best to reformat with this new BIOS, and start over? I heard it's best to format a hard drive with the BIOS of the PC it's going in. Well not formatting with the BIOS, but uh...under it. 2.I've taken a formatted hard drive out of another PC and put it in mine, seems to work, but wanna know again, is it best to reformat it with my PC, seeing as the BIOS are different( both are AMI, but different versions. 3. Is it best to format for Win98 through DOS? And is it best to format the drive for WinXP with the XP disc, as I've heard? 4. Does Partition Magic's partitioning have issues with XP or any OS, as I've heard? I've shuffled stuff around so many times with Partition Magic that I think the strange things that are happening (inconsistant errors\crashes and slooow boot times in 98, that I can't duplicate) are somehow related to either the multiple formatting\multiple partioning through DOS\partition Magic. For the most part it's stable, XP being rock solid.

1,2 and 3 - No. Which Bios, CPU, Dos, windows, etc does the formatting doesn't matter. It's all the same. 4 - Don't know.

As for questions #1 & 2 above, it makes absolutely no difference at all. As for question #3, I really don't know, but I don't trust formatting within Windows. I've done it both ways. Format within Windows takes about 20 seconds, while formatting from DOS can take 20-30 minutes or longer, depending upon the size of the HD. I just find it hard to believe that both versions are equal, so I'll stick with DOS. Just my opinion...I could be wrong, but I'll stay with what I'm comfortable with. As for question #4, I've resized, moved, deleted, copied, and created partitions with Partition Magic while running Win95, Win98, and Win 2K. I've also converted from FAT 16 to FAT 32, & only once did I have a problem. The problem was with improper number of clusters, which I believe was actually my own fault rather than the fault of the OS or Partition Magic. Hope this helps. Dave

the version of partition magic is quite important. the latest ones (i believe 7.0 and up, but im not 100% sure of that) work with XP, but the older ones arent recommended for use with xp as for the other 3 questoins, nah, doesnt make a difference how you format, except if you repartition your hard drive(s), fdisk can only make one primary partition per physical hard disk. and dont bother reformatting after installing a new BIOS

Thanks for the responses. RE: Wuffell...Thought there was an issue, I used P.M.6. Re: Dave...it's weird cuz generally DOS is faster, ie. scandisk(wonder if they're the same scandisc?), without the windows baggage I guess. Perhaps formatting from floppy slower cuz floppy is slower, or does it run it from Ram? Eg. May be a bad example...Inoculate A\V states: E:\ Master Boot Record is OK: standard Win95 OSR2. E:\ Partition Boot Record is unknown but seems OK......Unknown??? I use E for storage, and it works so I haven't bothered repartitioning...works fine. I got AMI BIOS ver 3, MSI mobo,AMD k62-266,Abit G2 64Meg, Creative PCI 128,SCSI burner, NEC cd, and 4 hard drives. BootLogAnalyzer shows "initing m5229.mpd" as takeing 18secs. I believe this file is to do with my ALI IDE controller drivers, which led me to the formatting\partitioning question. That and curiosity. Shuts down in 5 seconds. Starts up over 1 minute. I've also heard reformatting actually leaves files on the drive, app called Wipeout states this, and since I've done it so many times...

>I've also heard reformatting actually leaves files on the drive This is correct...that's why data recovery systems work. Format doesn't actually delete the files, it just makes the computer unable to access them. Then you are just writing over them, kinda like taping over a previously-recorded vcr tape. The info on the drive isn't deleted until you write over it. To totally erase a HD, you need to get a "write zeros" program (often erroneously called a low-level format). These programs are often available from the HD manufacturer's website. I don't understand exactly why it happens, but often writing zeros to the HD will help recover sectors previously marked bad by scandisk. Dave