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Hi
Due to a boot up problem (long boot time) i need to do a clean install of windows (delete partition, remake it and reformat).
My hard drive is split in 2 NTFS partitions (C and D)
Question:
Can i leave my D: partition intact and only do a clean install of C:? Will the D: partition still work and be accessible? If possible i don't want to lose the D: partition.
Thanks
Yes you can leave D: as it is and install to C:
Yes the D: partition will still be accessible (just be sure not to format it during install).
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yes you can leave the D partition with out having to reformat it, all the information there will still be able to be accessable through the operating system as long its a windows file system. Just reinstall windows on C: and leave the D: drive alone. that was a smart idea to do that but i would consider allocating 3-4 gigs of space to install windows xp on C partition and then remaining space to D or how ever you want to use it. the reason for allocating only 3 to 4 gigs for space for windows install is because you want a boot partition with all its core configuration file on one parition to make dumb windows to work a bit more efficient that it can handle. AND not alow anyother files or data to be written to the C drive to keep performance a bit long lasting without a hanging windows ice age.
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Thanks guys
Ok so if i understand correctly it's ok to **delete** , **remake** and *reformat* the C: partition and still have access to my D: partition after i do the clean install on C: as mentioned above?
Someone told me what i did was a dirty install. I only reformatted C: without deleting and remaking the C: partition first.
One last question though:
Since i've never worked with reformatting my hard drive when 2 partitions exists.
Currently my C: partition has 29.9 gb allocated to it and D: 156 gb
When i delete and remake the C: partition, will windows automatically tell me there's 29.9 gb of free space to make the C: partition or do i need to fill in that number manually?
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yes..
Boot with winows XP xp.in the install manager you can delete the C: Partition and recreate it.. then format and instal.
After install you'll hav eboth drives.But if you are doing a cleaninstall, there is no need to remove the partition.. simply doing a normal format will do the trick .
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"But if you are doing a cleaninstall, there is no need to remove the partition.. simply doing a normal format will do the trick"
That's what i did, twice even but now Windows XP takes extremely long to boot up. It just sits there for 30 secs showing a black screen before the XP logo appears and continues to boot up normally.
Thus my question about deleting and remaking the C: partition instead of only reformatting which i did.
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if you taking that long to boot up you need to find what is making that take that long.. Deleteing the partition wont solve that.
Perhaps a driver is to blame or network..
Try this 1st..
Remove spyware, Remove virus(s) clear all temp files.
then go here:
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootvis.phpdownload BootVis and follow the instruction on the web page..
Could be something as simple as a driver conflict.
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There is no need to delete any partitions and most likely can't even be done without deleting the D: Simply reformat the C: and reinstall the OS.
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"There is no need to delete any partitions and most likely can't even be done without deleting the D: Simply reformat the C: and reinstall the OS"
Why can't that be done? Only C: holds the system files, D: and any other partitions one might have installed are simply file storage places, no?
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If the partitioning is the normal Primary and extended with logical drives then you can't remove the Primary until the logical drives and the extended partitions are deleted. To clarify, the deletion order using Fdisk is the opposite of the creation order. Does this make sense? BTW I do believe that 3rd party software is available that states it can remove the primary partition without disturbing the extended partition. In any case there is no need to delete this partition because formatting it will accomplish what you want to do. If you don't want to gamble with the D: partition I suggest you simply format the C: and that is all. Do you have installation disks or just restore disks?
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"If the partitioning is the normal Primary and extended with logical drives then you can't remove the Primary until the logical drives and the extended partitions are deleted. To clarify, the deletion order using Fdisk is the opposite of the creation order. Does this make sense?"
I only have one drive which is split in 2 partitions C: and D:
BTW I do believe that 3rd party software is available that states it can remove the primary partition without disturbing the extended partition."Partition magic?
"In any case there is no need to delete this partition because formatting it will accomplish what you want to do. If you don't want to gamble with the D: partition I suggest you simply format the C: and that is all."Well it didn't since i reformatted it twice and still i get a long boot up time which wasn't the case before. And i didn't add any hardware or USB devices.
"Do you have installation disks or just restore disks?"I have a windows Xp installation cd-rom.
So i assume there's no way i can save the D: partition (except backing it up on DVD) if i want to delete/recreate the C: partition.
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From what you say deleting the partition simply seems to be the next logical step to take, in your mind. You really don't have any basis to blame the harddrive do you. I am an ardent believer in backing up your data, so I would recommend that, even if you didn't have this issue. If you are concerned enough obout that files on your D: drive that you want to preserve them then they should be backed up. I know you don't want to be preached at but I say this because now would be an excellent time to do this. The latest versions of Ghost run in windows. You can create an image of each of these partitions and restoring to either the original locaation or a new drive, should taht be necessary. Ghost will span multiple disks if necessary and does compress data so it takes less space. I use both CDR and DVDR, depending on what partition I am imaging. This isn't the same as backing up. With an image, after you restore that image to disk that disk is fully operational, just like before. Anyway, have you performed any other troubleshooting to determine the slow boot? Have you run a thorough scan of this partition? I have been just today helping someone else with slow boot times. in the 5 to 10 minute range. There seems to be a rash of this, and optical drives not being seen in windows. There may be other causes for this. What have you looked at? Is this drive fully functional once windows does boot? I would suggestthat you download and run a disk utility to troubleshoot any disk issues. Each disk manufacturer has a version that runs on thier drives. What brand drive is this?
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"Is this drive fully functional once windows does boot?
Yes it does function normally once windows boots although i do hear the hard drive all the time even when i'm not working on it but maybe that's just my imagination or it's my firewall/anti-virus working in the background.
"I would suggestthat you download and run a disk utility to troubleshoot any disk issues. Each disk manufacturer has a version that runs on thier drives. What brand drive is this?"
Yes i'm looking at some utilities right now but i can't seem to determine the exact drive i have except that it's a 200 gb WDC (western digital?) I was hoping sysoft sandra pro would give me more details so i can download a utility from western digital but the only thing it mentions is WDCWD2000JB-75DUA0.
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp
I'm also looking at this utility:HDD Regenerator
http://www.dposoft.net/
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There is a utility called Everest home edition. This free utility is worth having. All you need to know is that the drive is western digital. Before you attempt to fix the drive be sure there is something wrong with it. Have you looked in the BIOS to see how it is recognised. If you have SANDRA run a benchmark on the drive to see how it compares. I really don't think the primary partition is your problem. There may be an issue with the ASPI drivers.
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