BleepingComputer.com: Please help me to understand this, ASAP

Hi experts, please help me by explaning this situation on me. Last month and a half I formatted my one and only 80gb HDD in two partition. So now i have two partition in only one HDD, which is called the drive C and drive D. The biggest partitioned is drive C the one where i installed my OS which is windows xp professional service pack 2. Then the drive D remain RAW, so i format it by right clicking drive D: then go to format with NTFS file system like on drive C but this time without installing another Operating System. So I thought I only have one Operating System Installed on my HDD.

And now my question is if i'm planning to Re-install my Operating System on Drive C: with deleting partitioned space, would it delete also the files that i put on my drive D: ?

Thank you very much, I hope u can help me...

Hi , I'm no expert but I try to help .

<<...if i'm planning to Re-install my Operating System on Drive C: with deleting partitioned space, would it delete also the files that i put on my drive D: ?>>

It depends...how's that for a non-answer?

a. If you have a Microsoft XP install CD...and it is not a MS OEM/System Builder version...you should be able to do as you stated. I would go a step further and suggest that you delete the existing partition...and then use the XP CD to create a new partition/format same/install XP.

b If you have a MS XP install Cd and it is a System Builder/OEM version (which is what I have), then I don't think that you will be able to do what you outlined. The reason...the SB/OEM versions of XP expect to be installed on a hard drive which does not have anything else on it, since the O/S is the first thing that should be installed. It differs from the retail/upgrade versions of XP in that regard, if I recall correctly.

c. If you are using any recovery/restore disks from any computer manufacturer...those play by the rules of the system manufacturer, which are not necessarily rules that conform to the behavior documented for a MS XP install CD.

System manufacturer and model?

Louis

This post has been edited by hamluis: 05 September 2009 - 01:49 PM

Quote

If you delete all partitions (including D:) OR if you delete D: partition, then you would lose what you have on D:

Romeo29, on Sep 5 2009, 02:32 PM, said:

What if i don't delete D: partition, but i delete the C: partitioned space where my only operating system stored. Should i able to retrieve the file on drive D: after i install operating system on C: , which is the same CD/product key i used like before?

Do you know what you have in the way of installation CDs?

If you can figure that out with 100% certainty and that will allow the best advice.

A bootable XP installation CD which is not the same as a "recovery CD" that came from Dell or Compaq or whomever your HW vendor is.

A bootable XP installation CD (at least mine) is just one CD - not a "set of" recovery CDs.

I think this is a reasonable idea:

Put your CDs in the drive, open My Computer and see what the name or "label" is for the CD.

For example: WXPVOL_EN

Find the name and we can help look it up.

This post has been edited by joseibarra: 05 September 2009 - 03:37 PM

theinvulnerable, on Sep 5 2009, 03:53 PM, said:

Yes if you do it through Windows XP setup.
But tell me what is the reason of this deleting partition space? Why not just do a format of C: partition during install? Besides deleting partition would be riskier.
If you delete C: but not D:, then you cannot increase disk space on C: partition. There is no other benefits I can think of for which you might want to do so.

My advice to you is that forget about deleting partition and just do a full NTFS format of C: when you re-install XP.