Hey I was wondering if anyone could help me, Im trying to reformat my older computer just because it has been slowing down, but when I try to boot directly from CD rom it won't allow it.. So what I did was just clicked install from the windows screen and went through the setup, then when I tried to delete the partion to make a new one it said I could not due to temporary files from the setup being used by the partion. Can anyone help me, an e-mail would probably help the most.

Well, Best thing to do is to find a win98 bootdisk ( or win ME) and boot using the floppy and then run fdisk. It'll wipe NTFS partitions, but you'll have to then boot from the XP cd to format.

hello if for some reason fdisk cant delete partions.do google for delpart and add it to the bootdisk.

Partitions cannot be deleted if they are occupied by the OS and you are trying to delete the partition from within the OS. Presumably this drive has a single (all in one - OS/apps/utils/data included) partition? If the system doesn't support a CD boot, then locate/use the XP setup floppies and do it all that way (i.e. run setup, reformat etc.). You could use a '98 boot-disk (the Fdisk util) to remove the partition, reconfigure and reformat (Fdisk and Format utils); then run XP setup (via the flopies) and proceed onwards. ntfs = non-DOS partition under Fdisk inspections. To use Delpart requires a dos/'9x boot-disk to run. You boot to a dos (a:>\ prompt) switch to the delpart floppy and run the util; follow on-screen prompts. You can also add the util to a boot-disk and avoid a disk change? delpart freebie download (fits easily on a floppy) at: http://www.mesich.com http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/index.htm XP floppies are at MS KB and at: http://www.bootdisk.com The latter are images you download to a hard-drive and (self-)expand to floppies - you need 6 floppies. If starting afresh and reconfiguring the drive, I suggest you use the '98 boot-disk utils to create both Primary and Extended partitions. Use the Primary for OS/apps/utils, the Extended for data only. This way you can safely re-install to Primary (even reformat it if need-be) and data will/should be safe in its own (Extended) partition. Fdisk tutorials: http://www.compguystechweb.com/index.html http://www.btinternet.com/~robert.bale1/formatinstall.htm and I think mesich.com has one too?