[listerdl]

Hi.

I am going to reinstall Windows2000 on a laptop (that is best suited owing to RAM constraints).

Thins is that I would like to wipe off the slow working XP - how do I make sure that the Windows2000 wipes off the XP? Thnaks

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1. strip the old drive of needed files onto burned disks
2. reformat the drive to erase the old version
3. reinstall the newer version
or
4. install the new version on a new partition and then delete the old partition once you are sure that you've got the new one up and running


the cleanest approach would be to delete the old version, and install the new one, but, take off and save the needed files first , i.e. burn them to disk, then wipe the drive and move on

[b1caez01]

1. strip the old drive of needed files onto burned disks
2. reformat the drive to erase the old version
3. reinstall the newer version
or
4. install the new version on a new partition and then delete the old partition once you are sure that you've got the new one up and running


the cleanest approach would be to delete the old version, and install the new one, but, take off and save the needed files first , i.e. burn them to disk, then wipe the drive and move on

[pip22]

Just to put you wise regarding the title of your post --- every drive has to be partitioned in order to be able to install anything on it -- even if it's only a single partition. Without at least one partition the drive would not have a drive-letter, it could not be formatted, and would therefore not be usable.

Edited by pip22, 10 November 2006 - 07:13 AM.

[Tyger]

The best thing to do in a case like this is to completely wipe the drive, to write it to zeros, removing all partitions and any other data. On XP installations there may be "hidden" data on the drive which is not removed by just formatting it and this can cause problems. This data is not seen when you open My Computer so you may not know it is there. After this you may make a new partition and reformat the drive. The win2000 installer can make the partition and format the drive.

[listerdl]

Thanks for the replies - all really useful... - another question - will the Windows2000 disk just simply do its own thing and give me the option to "completely wipe the drive, to write it to zeros, removing all partitions and any other data" [ as Tyger says ]??

I.e. How much tinkering and know how do I need to achieve my [relatively] simple objective of wiping the laptop and re-installing a nice and easy version of Windows2000.

{I say Windows2000 since apparently the available RAM i have is best suited for the laptop}

THANKS AGAIN For all comments/replies.