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Thread ID: 30071 2003-02-09 22:06:00 Partition drive format davelowe@worldnet.co.nz (391) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
119811 2003-02-09 22:06:00 I need help to reformat C: drive on a partitioned HDD.
I had a C: & D: drive on the HDD, installed win2k on C: with HTFS file system. I then did what I thought was a format on C: but it formatted the D: instead. I've since got the data back on D: (thanks Mike) now I need to reformat C: without losing D: drive data again.

How do I go about it correctly this time????

Thanks Dave
davelowe@worldnet.co.nz (391)
119812 2003-02-09 22:08:00 I would use FDisk to delete the first partition and then format it using.. wait for it:
format c:

This will make it FAT32 but you can later convert it to NTFS - not HTFS :-)
Chilling_Silence (9)
119813 2003-02-09 23:29:00 Hold on deleting the first partion would result in the MBR for both the physical and extended partion being deleted/changed wouldn't it?
Also you can't delete the primary partion without removing the extended partion. Am i not correct?
This is with Fdisk anyway. Don't know what the scenario is with Partion Magic.
roofus (483)
119814 2003-02-09 23:58:00 Hi Roofus,

Win2K doesn't appear to write to the mbr. Lets put it this way, if you fdisk /mbr Win2K still boots :)
I can't see the point of using fdisk as this is purely for altering the partitions. Use a Win98 boot disk and from a:/ c: then format c:

That should do the trick. Go here (www.drd.dyndns.org) to get a boot disk image.
Gorela (901)
119815 2003-02-10 01:14:00 Originaly thats what I did, format C:
What it did though was format the D: drive, something to do with the 98 boot disk not reading the NTFS that C: was based on.

Anymore thoughts.....

Dave
davelowe@worldnet.co.nz (391)
119816 2003-02-10 01:41:00 Steered you a bit wrong there :0

Start the computer with the 98 boot disk. Then FDisk from the prompt. Once in FDisk select option 4 which should be show partition info. It should still show the info even though it's NTFS.

Then esc and format c:

I'm just doing this at the moment on a HD with NTFS Win2K as the first 1G partition and about 600MB FAT32 partition as D:

I'll let you know what happens :)
Gorela (901)
119817 2003-02-10 01:47:00 Absolutely right. The sodding thing's still there ?:|

So much easier using linux FDisk ;)
Gorela (901)
119818 2003-02-10 01:58:00 its because fdisk is well an fdisk aka FAT32Disk.
It doesn't know what ntfs or others are.
I think you will need to look at partioning software on the internet.
try http://www.download.com
roofus (483)
119819 2003-02-10 02:02:00 I would FDisk it so that it'll get rid of the NTFS partition and then it'd be safe to:
format c:
Ive never tried going format c: if C: iis s'posed to be NTFS?!
Chilling_Silence (9)
119820 2003-02-10 02:22:00 Sorry Chilling, :8}

Looks like you were spot on and need to delete the non dos partition to be able to format it. Fdisk is such a painful utility!

I thought I'd check out Fips, but that just came back with the can't read a non dos blah blah.

Oh well, it's been fun playing around with it :)
Gorela (901)
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