Erase a partition?

[hikermann]

Win XP Home Edition: my hard drive is partitioned (C:\ for operating stuff; D:\ for files).

Apparently something has gone amiss with the WinXP; attempting to use the Repair function from the CD always comes to a dead-end when it asks for the administrator password; I am the sole user of the PC and have set up the account reflecting that I am the administrator -- but the Repair function will not accept my password.

Attempting to reload Win XP on the C:\ partition comes up with a disk error message -- typically useless, since it gives no clue whatever how/what/where to find a solution to that message.

When going through the reload Win XP route, it asks if I want to delete/erase that partition. To me that means there would be no remaining C:\ partition available when I attempted to load Win XP again but that my D:\ partition would remain intact. [True / false?]

Q: Is there a way to DELETE THE CONTENTS of the C:\ partition without removing the partition; meaning, I would then have a clean partition into which to load Win XP.

Thanks.

 

[goombawaho]

Boot to something like BartPE or Ultimate Boot CD for Windows or a bootable Linux CD and you can whack everything on the the C: partition. At that point, however, I would probably copy all your data to an external hard drive/flash drive and then you wouldn't have to worry about anything that might happen during re-installation of XP.

CYA and then you won't worry and you could whack all partitions and start from scratch.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[hikermann]

Thanks. Went on-line and downloaded Ultimate Boot CD 528 (UBCD528); burned to disk.

Don't know where the problem is:

1. I accessed the download via my MacBook (only alternative

http://www connection

I have as my PC is not working presently)
2. The download shows as 487 KB
3. When I drag it into the CD window to burn it, it shows only as 98 KB
4. Burns "successfully"
5. When attempting to boot from that CD on the PC, it doesn't even give a "Press any key to boot from CD" but only "A disk read error occurred Press CTL ALT DEL to restart.

I also downloaded a Softronic version (shows as 406 KB @ download, 98 KB on the CD), as well as WindowsXP-KB310...SP23-BootDisk-ENU.exe, which shows as 406 MB @ download, but then only the same 98 KB on the CD.

So I suspect something, as they say, is getting lost in translation and the PC is confirming that ... ?

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Rick998]

UBCD528 is 560Mb. Rather than use the torrent link on the Ultimate Boot CD site, try downloading it from one of the official mirror sites, e.g. www.oldergeeks.com.

Hope this helps...

 

[goombawaho]

You have to burn it as an image ("burn file to image" or similar) using whatever software you have.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[strongm]

>I am the sole user of the PC and have set up the account reflecting that I am the administrator

The administrator, and an administrative account are not the same thing, I'm afraid.

 

[Rick998]

Your MacBook has ISO-burning capability built-in to the OS... it's just different to how you do in Windows (where you use a burning program and point it at an ISO file). Using your MacBook, do this:
[ol 1]
[li]Insert a blank CD disc.[/li]
[li]Start the Mac's built-in Disk Utility.[/li]
[li]From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned.[/li]
[li]In the list of volumes, you'll see an item representing the ISO file. Select it.[/li]
[li]Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.[/li]
[/ol]

Hope this helps...