i have 2 separate hard drives (C: win98) and (D: winxp). recently my win98 operating system crashed which left me with no choice but to reformat C: (win98). however, there were files needed to run winxp that were erased (such as boot.ini, etc), causing some winxp programs to not function (even after doing recovery console). i want to start all over by reformating (D: winxp) and transfering/installing winxp to drive C, using that as my main operating system. drive D will be free for installation of other programs. here are my questions: 1. what do i need to keep on hand before i start with reformatting? (apart from winxp installation disk) 2. does the disk come with a cd-driver, even so that after all drives had been reformatted i can still access my cd drive by executing the setup command? 3. what other files currently installed do i need to back up before doing the reformat (such as boot.ini) / or there is no need to if i wanted to start with a clean slate? 4. can you refer me to a link that has a step-by-step procedure about installing winxp after doing reformat. thanks!

Hey All you need to do is boot with the XP CD and all of your problems can be addressed during install. The CD give you the opportunity to format the partition during install. Choose to format the C: drive and install there( I hope you know if you install XP first you can not install 98 later). After the XP install you can right click on my computer and select manage/ disk management, and from there partition your D: drive in to as many partitions as you wish. When installing programs, install them to the D: drive and keep the C: drive as free as possible to maintain fast operation. XP has some great features built in. Disk management is one of them.

do you want to leave 98 on c or just forget about 98 and go with xp on both drives? If you want to forgo 98 then just enter the bios and change the boot sequence to boot from cd first,and reboot with xp install disc in and follow the directions for full formatting. I would go with the ntsf file system and format with 1 partition as you are using two hdds. then after the format, set up will automatically install windows and all drivers that you will need to start. I would then update all the drivers and then download all the fixes from microsoft. Your d drive should then be ok to use without needing anything else

sir, i no longer wish to keep win98. right now, winxp is still on D. i do not want it there anymore. should i reformat D first to clear winxp (i only want one operating system which would be winxp on C) or install winxp on C first, then reformat D later? you mentioned that disk management has many features. does that mean that by creating partition (on D while running winxp on C), it will automatically reformat the D drive? or not? what does creating partition mean, just out of curiousity:) thanks for all your help!

A HDD partition is a reserved part of disk that is set aside for some purpose. On a PC, new hard disks must be partitioned before they can be formatted for the operating system, and the Fdisk utility is used for this task. It can make one partition, creating one drive letter for the entire disk, or it can make several partitions sized to your requirements. For example, drives C:, D: and E: could be the same physical disk, but they would act like three separate drives to the operating system and user.

Hello....what if u go into prompt and type format C:? Does that do the same thing or should I go by booting up with the cd?

you could have saved the instalation useing recovery consol amd fix /mbr