Whirlpool

I have installed xp pro on the same partition as Win 2000 pro. The installation is incomplete.

I cannot format my HDD to do a fresh install of either Win 2000 or XP pro.

I have original Win 2000 and XP pro with their respective keys. My preference is to install XP pro.

Can anyone point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance, Max

**Hatch** writes...

Can anyone point me in the right direction.

Boot up with the Windows CD and delete the partition.

boot with the xp disc and then just select the partion and format it and install xp on that

"boot with the xp disc and then just select the partion and format it and install xp on that"

I tried the above and like I said it does not let me. When I contnued with the setup it hangs with 13 mins to go.

Another time when I boot up with thw XP disc, it said 'restarting Win set up' Allowed it to continue and then it hanh with 13 mins to go.

Is there a way I can delete the os (so there is nothing on the HDD and then boot up with the Win XP disc?

**Hatch** writes...

When I contnued with the setup it hangs with 13 mins to go.

Make sure your disk is clean and not scratched.

**Hatch** writes...

Is there a way I can delete the os (so there is nothing on the HDD and then boot up with the Win XP disc?

Yes you can...use DOS 6.22
Boot up and format the drive.
This what we do in some hard cases.

There are many tools you could use to do this.

You could download Dban, either the bootable floppy disk or the bootable CD version and do a single pass wipe, which will overwrite every sector on the whole disk. It's thorough but only do it if there are no other partitions containing useful data.

Or you could reformat only the system partition using almost any bootable CD with utilities on it, such as Ubuntu, Gparted, Knoppix, Hiren's, UBCD, UBCD4Win, BartPE, any partition manager, etc, because they all have the ability to reformat an NTFS partition.

**Hatch** writes...

I have installed xp pro on the same partition as Win 2000 pro.

That's possible but it's better to install each OS on its own partition.

Sydguard, Sounds like a plan.
Can you please provide me with a link so I can get a copy of dos 6.22
Thanks again

www.microsoft.com/downlo...p;DisplayLang=en

Doesnt anyone use FDISK anymore.

www.fdisk.com free program to partition and format drives.

(Oh for the good ol`e days when ppl did things by hand). :P

PTButt writes...

Doesnt anyone use FDISK anymore

Lol..good ol DOS days I'm afraid.
But I don't think it would solve original OP's problem.

As Alan mentioned, DBAN is a good option, or if you can still access your OS you can make an MS-DOS start up disk by following the instructions below, then you can use FDISK to kill the partitions and format.

To create an MS-DOS startup disk
The MS-DOS startup disk you create will allow you to boot into MS-DOS.

Insert a floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive.
Open My Computer, and then click the floppy disk drive to select it.
On the File menu, point to the name of the floppy drive, and then click Format.
Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
Click Start..

Never seen that FDISK site, nice :)

I think FDISK will work, pretty sure I remember having a similar problem once.....

just a slack cut and paste from Windows Help ^_^

You could download Dban, either the bootable floppy disk or the bootable CD version and do a single pass wipe, which will overwrite every sector on the whole disk. It's thorough but only do it if there are no other partitions containing useful data.

that's the right answer.
nice and easy.

**Hatch** writes...

I tried the above and like I said it does not let me. When I contnued with the setup it hangs with 13 mins to go.

To me it certainly looks like he has at least started a re-install. to the OP, can you detail the steps you followed to start the re-install, did it involve deleting the partitions using the XP disk?

Another time when I boot up with thw XP disc, it said 'restarting Win set up' Allowed it to continue and then it hanh with 13 mins to go.

That's exactly what I would expect from a new XP install, but the freezing at 13 minutes isn't normal, once you have reached this stage then it should continue until it is finished. There is the faint chance that if the partition hasn't been deleted properly then a fault in the file system could give this result, so using Dban may help.

Is there a way I can delete the os (so there is nothing on the HDD and then boot up with the Win XP disc?

This is done through the normal XP setup, when it asks you where to install the OS you select the partitions then press D for delete, then "enter" to confirm and finally L to complete the deletion, it should then be completely deleted. If you have done this previously then it may be an error on the disk, a problem with the CD reader, a scratched CD etc as mentioned before.

So can you confirm that you actually dceleted the partition in your first attempt with the Xp CD?

Steve the (original) name pirate

tmc108 writes...

nice and easy.

True, but I seem to remember DBAN being a relatively slow operation, even on a single pass, hey I could be wrong, it's been awhile ;)

partition was not deleted. I did get to the sdreen where it ask you to select the target partion. I selected C and hit enter to delete.
Came back with 'unable to delete - cannot upgrade from Windows 2000 pro to XP pro'

JohnnyBladez writes...

True, but I seem to remember DBAN being a relatively slow operation, even on a single pass, hey I could be wrong, it's been awhile ;)

You can cancel Dban's wipe after it has been running for a few minutes, after it has overwritten at least 50 MB. By then it has wiped the MBR's boot code and partition table and the first few sectors of the first partition. That will be sufficient.

cannot download any of those files atm. Work has denied access. When I get home, I will download there and run Dban. Is this the preffered method?

Thanks again ppl.

**Hatch** writes...

When I get home, I will download there and run Dban. Is this the preffered method?

It's the easiest and most effective - there will be no doubt that the hard disk will look to the XP installer like an empty new disk with no partitions on it. After running dban, you can either use a partition manager to create new partitions or allow the XP installer CD to make a new partition to install XP into.

Only use Dban if you have no useful stuff in any partitions on this hard disk.

I selected C and hit enter to delete.

No, I clearly stated it's "press D to delete" pressing enter will attempt to do a install over the top of the existing OS, or an install side by sde with the old OS.

cannot upgrade from Windows 2000 pro to XP pro'

Make sure your disk isn't actually an upgade disk, if it is you may find it won't install on a blank HDD anyway.

Steve the (original) name pirate

Alan, I am running Dban as I type.

Copied to a cd and booted the pc. working fine so far.

Earlier post suggests to stop it because it is slow.

At the moment it has completed 14.23% of a 18 gig HD, 1st pass.
Is that enough?

looks like I am on a winner ppl

I am installing the os and I am seeing what was described earlier.

Many thanks to all that took their time and offered it to my cause.

A bigger thanks to those that have patience to assist novices like myself

I will reply with a final comment when all goes to plan. (fingers crossed)

Thanks

Just been reading the thread, and thought I would throw my two cents worth in, as someone mentioned a dos 6.22 boot disk

One word - dont.

Dos 6.22 was FAT16, it will not recognise any drive formatted to FAT32 or NTFS, and the largest partition it would allow would be about 2 gigs

If you are still stuffing around with boot floppies, you want one made with Win95b, Win98, or WinME, otherwise you are going to create massive headaches for yourself unless you know dos backwards and understand file systems

Much better to make a proper Windows based bootable CD - do a search here, or through Google and learn about BART-PE and similar, which will allow you to boot into a Windows environment, recognise FAT16 FAT32 and NTFS disks, not to mention SATA drives which most modern drives are

^^gg^^ writes...

Just been reading the thread, and thought I would throw my two cents worth in, as someone mentioned a dos 6.22 boot disk

I agree. In particular, never use the old DOS FDISK program. It has a dangerous bug as well as the limitations about the disk size it can cope with. There are modern partition managers you can run off a CD which can do anything you might want to do with DOS and FDISK more safely.
/forum-replies.cfm?t=947882

Morning All,

Further to my last post....

booted with Win XP and with 13 mins to (registering components?) it decided to hang there.

I switcbed the pc off. Booted with Dban and this time allowed it to complete its task overnight.

In the morning I tried XP pro again and all was going good until it came to 13 mins to go.......at this point I had to leave to make it to the airport..........so I just left it.

About 45 mins later my better half calls me and advised that it has completed and the sreen has 'welcome to Windows XP' or something to that effect.

Will look at it when I get home Wed night.

Does it seem like it has actually succeeded in loading XP successfully?

Thanks