Hi. well, my pc posts fine, but win xp is corrupt. trying to use win 98se startup disk for fdisk feature. i select 3.(delete partition or logical disk drive), then on the next menu, i select 1.(delete primary dos partition) and get "cannot delete primary dos partition on drive 1 when an extended dos partition exists". i select 2.(delete extended dos partition) and get "cannot delete extended dos partition while logical drive exists". i select 3.(delete logical drives in the extended dos partition) and get "no logical drives defined - all logical drives deleted in extended dos partition"?! i select 4.(delete non dos partition) and get "no non dos partition to delete". PHEW! LOL. i changed the boot order to boot from cd, but my win xp pro disk will not initialize. will i not be able to delete my 2 partitions and create a new one to start from scratch with fdisk? Thank you very much for your help!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that you want to delete 2 partitions in order to install WinXP on it? Do you still have an OS like Win98 installed on one of the partitions? If so, try to install a third party software like Partition Magic to easly delete partitions. After that, format the partition with your Win98 bootdisk and install WinXP

hmmm. well, all i want to do is delete the primary partition so i can create a new one, format, and reinstall xp. any way i can do that with fdisk instead of buying software? Thanks.

I'm sorry, but i'm not completly familiar with fdisk. maybe you can find your more information here. http://www.putergeek.com/disk_partitioning/ Good luck!

You need to delete a non-dos partition more than likely. Try again. Sometimes it will take many attempts to get the CD to boot. Keep trying. This is the best way actually. You are trying the proper methods. And it looks like you're doing it correctly. Just don't give up. Keep trying.

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html Freeware . WIPE OUT : as the name implies, this utility will absolutely WIPE your hard drive. For those times when an industrial strength cleaner is needed to remove any pesky files Fdisk may have left behind. A readme file is included in the zip file. WARNING...WIPE OUT will remove ALL data from the Hard Drive. WARNING The use of WIPEOUT can and will result in the loss of ALL data on your hard drive. DIRECTIONS 1- Unzip file 2- Copy WIPEOUT to a Win9x boot disk 3- Boot with Win9x disk 4- At the A:\> type "wipeout c: /nq /np" (no quotes) /nq = no queries - you will not be asked if you are sure. /np = no partitions - this will overwrite the MBR Press Enter . Now run fdisk to set up partitions . When done reboot & format .

Thanks JohnW! that's what i was looking for.