Reinstalling Windows 2000 without deleting the partition. Help!!! 1

[JenZebra]

Hi all! Can someone please help me with this? A few days ago, we reinstalled Windows 2000 for someone. We logged onto Windows, ran the cd from Explorer, and chose to Install Windows. When it came to the part of the setup where it allows you to delete the existing partition or create a new one, it wouldn't allow us to delete the partition. No matter how many times we hit L on the keyboard, it just would not delete. Why??? I know there are other ways to delete and format the partition, but we ultimately decided to just reinstall Windows over the current OS without deleting and recreating the partition. But I'm still curious about why we couldn't delete the partition through the setup. Also, when the installation was finished, we went into explorer and found some program files that were still there (at the root of C). Generally if you simply delete an application from the explorer, you'll start getting error messages in Windows. But we were able to successfully delete the folder containing the application files without any problems. I know this has to do with the fact that we performed a "clean" install, but I would really like to know why we were able to delete the folders like that and not receive any error messages. Can someone PLEASE explain that one to me? Thank you!!!

 

[satrow]

...because after Windows had rebooted into Setup, it couldn't delete the partition because it had already copied the temporary setup files there....?

If you had started Setup by booting from the CD, you would not have had this problem.

Andy.

 

[JenZebra]

You're probably right. But also, why were we able to delete the applications without receiving any errors?

 

[satrow]

The applications were not part of the clean install, therefore not entered into the Registry - so no errors...?

Andy.

 

[JenZebra]

Thanks Andy- I appreciate your help.
Jen