i had a problem with xp and wanted to reinstall it which i did but unfortunately it was installed on my other hard drive by mistake. I have tried to format the origional drive but it wont let me. Is there a way i can remove the origional version of xp pro from drive c: while keeping the new version on drive D:

I'm guessing you are talking about two different drives and not two partitions on one drive. I would unhook the drive with the old installation and try booting from the new installation. If that works OK and all looks well unhook the new and hook up the old, you can use the XP/CD to boot from and delete the partition, now you can format the drive or not, depends on your choice as to what you plan to do with it.

when you say you tried to format the original hard disk what did it tell you? Have you tried removing the original hard disk and only using the new hard disk (currently drive D) to boot? I would think you would have some problems doing that. The original hard disk (currently drive c:) will have the boot files on it required to boot either version of windows. Compaq Presario SR1720NX Desktop Computer AT&T SBC Yahoo DSL Home Linksys Router/2 computers

XP (and likewise any other OS) will not allow you to reformat a drive/partition that contains the system or boot-files for the version/installation that is active at the time (as in booted up). The reformat of the c: drive can only be done (in your case) via '98 boot-disk; or the XP setup routine... But as "beachcoffee" advises the c: drive contains the boot/start-up files which allow the version on d: to boot... Lose those on c: and you have things to do to get d: to boot/run etc... Without going thru them all... one option would be to set the d: drive as Master and run XP repair routine. This will allow d: (XP) to boot and will probably rewrite the path statements for it to become c: as opposed to d: . Any apps/utils etc. may also then need to be re-installed so as to pick up correct path statements? If you merely wish to clean out the contents of c: - but leave the boot-files intact that is no hard thing to do. Simply boot to d: version; set it as default OS to boot; then reboot to confirm it does just that. Presuming so... via Windows Explorer, locate/delete the XP folder on the c: drive ; and also any other folders/files you don't want therein...' reboot to verify you haven't deleted anythng critical; and presuming so... empty recyle-bin (on the d: XP installation obviously); then defrag the c: drive/partition. You can also edit out the reference to c: installation from the boot.ini.