Hello all!

I'm building a new computer and not sure how to go about formatting the hard drive. I can boot from the XP cd but it's SP1 and, as I understand it, will not format a large HD (500g).

On my old computer I downloaded the SP2 upgrade, but it's now pretty much defunct - eaten alive by some virus or other so that I had to reinstall XP and now it refuses to upgrade. It also refuses to run my virus protection. I suppose I'll have to pretty much scrap it, but not until I get the new one working.

So, is there a way to do this? I'd really rather not have to pay for another OS. I'd greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Ken

Hi Ken

Using the Windows Disk for a format with a view to a clean install is not a great idea, you need to completely format / wipe the HDD and one application that is 100% capable of this (and will wipe ANY Virus from a HDD is DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) please do read the information at site and download from there as well

Link > DBAN

Thanks! I'll do that when I format the old drive.
But I guess I was a bit confusing above. I have a brand new 500gb drive that I need to format. It also needs to be bootable as it will be my C: drive on the new machine. Will DBAN do that too?

Thanks again,
Ken

the install cd will give you the chance to format the drive when you install the OS.

So SP1 WILL format a 500gb drive? That would be cool!

Thanks!
Ken

oh, sorry, dunno about the 500 gb size, i can't see why not just might take a while - google it and search the Microsoft knowledge base

Originally Posted by sepulchre

So SP1 WILL format a 500gb drive? That would be cool!

Thanks!
Ken

No it wont, if you did not get a prep CD with your new HDD you will need to go to its makers site "eg" Seagate = Seatools.

Actually, it's a Western Digital and this afternoon a friend told me to get their formatting tool(s) called Data Lifeguard. I suppose I'll have to boot with a floppy then run the tool from the CD.
I still don't know if XP SP1 will recognize a drive that size. Guess I'd better get googling.
Thanks a million to both of you for the help,
Ken

i found something saying there should be a patch available if your CD doesn't recognize the 500gb hard drive

sorry, maybe i was wrong - i was reading this thread TR Forums • View topic - Windows will NOT Install on 500 gig
don't know if that's any help