[kenleeliew]

I have a 80 GB hard disk, partitioned into 4 partitions. My operating system XP rests on Drive C, which I would like to format. How can I do so on that particular drive partition, without affecting adversely any aspects whatsoever the other remaining drives? I'm afraid that the newly installed OS will not recognise the other partitions after installation. I can't afford losing those precious data on the other drives!!

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beats me why you need four partitions on one disk. Anyway, each partition has a different letter (C,D,E,F). When you do a format you have to specify a drive letter for the partition you wish to format. None of the other partitions will be affected in any way.

[pip22]

beats me why you need four partitions on one disk. Anyway, each partition has a different letter (C,D,E,F). When you do a format you have to specify a drive letter for the partition you wish to format. None of the other partitions will be affected in any way.

[kenleeliew]

even if i format the drive my very OS is?

[flexoman]

Formatting C will not affect the other partitions whatsoever.....All information about a particular HD is kept at the very beginning of the disk in an area called the MBR. The drives are treated as individual drives and one doesn't affect the other.

If you intend to format and reinstall XP then just use your XP installation disk and format C and reinstall in one fell swoop. Don't delete the C drive else D will become C ..etc..Just format it and reinstall.

HTH

[kenleeliew]

thanks for the advice.

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

Great advice being given to you however, you may end up needing to retake ownership of all the files/folders on the other partitions.. Not difficult but be prepared just in case you get a "cannot access this folder" message..

Murray