What does "format with the installation on windows" mean? Can you tell the exact steps you took to get to the step or formatting? It sounds like you're doing something odd - if you boot from CD you should be able to format, and that should erase any previous Windows installation. reyj, actually you can boot from a bootleg copy of windows. So I'm told ;)

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Thanks, it still doesnt work, ill try with the 6 boot disks, do you know where i can get them ?

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Take out one of the slave hdd and then go into bios and make sure it is set to boot to cd as first boot option then save and exit and boot with the cd in and be sure to follow all the prompts then when it gets to screen that ask what you wish to do...highlite the partition and delete it then make it logical and format it and reinstall your OS. Then when you have booted into windows after the install a couple of times to make sure there are no issues shut down and install the slave drive and then format that one using windows disc management IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

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Miguel, a tip on using support forums: answering questions about your problem is a great way to get it solved. I asked you several questions which would probably get us closer to figuring out what the problem is and solving it. Responding back with "it still doesn't work" is just a waste of time and it's kind of insulting to the people who tried to help you. A better response would be "I tried X, Y and Z. Here is what happened when I tried that, and here is what still doesn't work". At this point I have no idea if you have even read my posts, or if you did what effect they had on your problem. I am really not inclined to try to help you any further, and I doubt many other posters will be either. At least not the ones you want helping you.

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Sorry jimminy, i totally understand you. The windows cd is already booting, the problem is that when i get to the step where i have to format to get rid of the old windows, it starts formatting and it says the format is complete, and it reboot alone. when i=the installation is supposed to start copying the new files, it says that there is another windows on the hdd, so the format wasnt succesful.

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Perhaps an easier solution would be to disable one of the drives first then use a '98 boot-disk (fdisk) to delete all partitions partitions and go from there.

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Miguel, thanks for replying :) That is odd. The XP installer doesn't normally reboot right after the formatting step. You might want to go with fjb's suggestion and delete all partitions on this drive. If you do that and you still get this error, something is definitely wrong with what you are doing. Which is why I asked you to describe the exact steps you are doing to format ;)

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if both drives are hooked up at the same time that is most likaly the problem, just do one at a time!!

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How would having multiple drives hooked up cause this problem? Windows is smart enough to tell what drives and partitions are online. The installer gives you a list of drives and partitions to install to (or format or repartiion) during install. As long as Miguel chooses the right one everything should be fine. Now he might be choosing the wrong one - that could be what's going wrong.

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DelPart will delete the partition table and will certainly allow you to start from scratch. Regards, Bryan

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