Posted by DJcreamz
Hello, i have a lap top here and im having real trouble completly removing windows, it was originally partitioned into 5 parts ive removed 3 of these but i cant edit the partition table anymore, i have winxp pro disk but this thing keeps running out of space as the orginal owner (DUMB ARSE) installed xp on a 2 gig partition so it keeps comming up with no memory errors, is there a way to completly remove the partition and wipe clean the disks starting from scratch ??? i have tried to format the disks via the winxp setup but it gets so far and just hangs.
BTW both partitions aree fat32, this is an old laptop but im getting paoid to sort it out so any way u can help will line my pockets, making me a rich man, and u full of self pride.
Posted by PercyC
Do you have an BeOS 5 CD within reach? The partition manager included works just fine :-)
Posted by DJcreamz
and yes Cycovision this was directed at your large cranium
Posted by govigov
Use partition magic. Isnt fdisk fine?
Posted by DJcreamz
thye only version of partition magic i have is for win9x and it needs to boot in dos mode to complete the process which is obviously a problem in xp
Posted by govigov
You can get the latest one from download.com seriously, this is a very powerful program, as i found it out the hard way, :-(
Posted by DJcreamz
lol, well i just want format the entire thing start form scratch as it were, the old days used to be format d:/ in command line
Posted by Cycovision
Cyco's rather spacious cranium (there's no brains left in it) says:
I think I need more info! The thing is, if you want to reinstall windows XP on it and you have a working XP pro disk, then there shouldn't be any reason why you can't get rid of all of the partitions during the setup process? It normally displays the partitions and gives you the chance of deleting them right at the start?
If you can't do that with the XP disk, one thing that's worked for me in the past is to use the first mandrake linux installation cd to delete the partitions. It's similar to XP; somewhere near the start you get offered the chance to delete all of the partitions, but mandrake doesn't care what 'type' of partitions they are (unlike fdisk). You can get the .iso cd image from http://www.mandrakelinux.com
EDIT: sorry, didn't see the bit about you've tried the XP disk!
Get mandrake linux disk one and use that. It's a pain, but it's guaranteed to work
_________________
'He who laughs last, laughs longest. Or didn't get the joke...'
[ This Message was edited by: Cycovision on 2005-04-06 23:14 ]
Posted by nickorooster
Ah yes the goon ol days of MS-Dos and before... Dark Forces, Jazz Jackrabbit, Commander Keen... Truly those days were golden...
Nick
Posted by ThreeX
Does the bugger have a floppydrive?
If so, Google for delpart.exe Thatīs the mother of all Windows/DOS apps and will remove any and all partitions of any HDD!
Good luck!
Posted by batesie
You just beat me to it threex ;-)
Posted by Krubach
I think you could boot with a diskette and fdisk in it.
if fdisk canīt delete all the partitions use:
"a:\>fdisk /mbr"
This will zero your MBR to defaults and then run fdisk again to delete the remainings.
I think i got a similar problem as you have (had some Linux partitions..)
Unless i'm very much mistaken.
Did i say that
Posted by Cycovision
Thanks threex! I've been looking for a decent partition deleting app for ages! Like I said, I've been using my trusty linux install disk for ages!
Posted by DJcreamz
OK thanks for the help so far ill try explain myself a little better
The system originally had WinME the most evil of all operating
systems, my mate wanted me to fix the fact he cept getting memory errors because there was not enuff space on the partition the OS was installed on. So i installed XP over the winME installation, at least i thought i had, it now has the option to boot from xp and ME. Anyway i gave it back to him and all was fine.
Then a week later he gave me it back because it was taking about 15mins to boot using winxp and when it did finnaly boot it was so slow the mouse even lagged this probably had something to do with the fact there was 1.5meg left on the OS partition.
still with me ? good
I noticed registry mechanic installed whcih i thought could have been the problem as it can be lethal in a noobs hands so i repaired the original installation of xp and it booted up fine, now it only has 300meg left on this partition. I know i could tell him not to install stuff on to C: but that wont make a differance because other people use it and they will continue to install crap onto C.
So i decided to install xp on the second partition as i was having trouble merging the two partitions together then format the first leaving me with just the once OS on the second and bigger partition. But when xp tried formating the second disk ready for installation it blue screened every time, i tried fat, fat32 and ntfs it hung on all of them so i am really at a lose end.
If you havent fallen asleep or killed yourself while reading this rather long winded explanation could anyone cast a light and point me in the right direction ?
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If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea... does that mean that one enjoys it
[ This Message was edited by: DJcreamz on 2005-04-07 11:47 ]
Posted by DJcreamz
aga do do do push pinapples shake your knees....
Anyone pllllleeeassseee help
Posted by DJcreamz
to the left to the right jump up and down...
please
Posted by Cycovision
It might be because the second partition hasn't been marked as active, but I doubt it. You might be able to mark it as active using XP's disk management tool (control panel, administrative tools), failing that any bootable patitioning app should be able to do it.
Personally, I'd just remove all of the partitions using the XP install disk and start again. Sounds like it's got into a bit of a mess so a complete blatt has to be the best thing.
Posted by djpowelly
The work Fdisk comes to mind.... On all Win98 bootdisks! You can even download them from the net, and there is a site dedicated to fdisk... google it!
Posted by Cycovision
Yeah, but fdisk can't remove all types of partitions, in fact it fails miserably a little too often for my liking
Posted by Krubach
use "fdisk /mbr" as i said earlier...
Posted by ThreeX
Only reasonable thing to do here IMO is wipe the entire disk, using favourite app (iīd use delpart) and start over again and make just one large C: partition, since most less literate people install blindly where the app tells you it wants to be installed.. which 99% of the time is C:\Program files, or even (those programmers should be taken outside and shot imo) C:\
Your failures so far can be so many reasons it would end up a novel to list.. so i will refrain from even getting started. in my job as sysadmin at university itīs proven time and time again that the fastest remedy and lasting solution is to start anew at square one. Trust me! Oh, and good luck!
Posted by sevastos
I think you should boot from the XP pro CD, then in the screen where you are prompted to choose where you'll install windows you can delete and create the partitions you want (I've done it 9 times in my computer so far). I suggest that you make 2 partitions with the second one about 5Gb just for quick backups in case you need to format the disk and reinstall windows.
If FDISK doesn't work for you download Partition magic as a trial version and download the crack or serial you need from astalavista.box.sk
I hope this helps
Posted by batesie
USE THIS!!!!
http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/delpart.exe
copy it to a floppy and boot it with the floppy in and run it....
_________________
Alcohol's the answer, but i forgot the question...
[ This Message was edited by: batesie on 2005-04-08 17:16 ]
Posted by DJcreamz
thanks for your input guys ill try these all when i get home two things tho...
there is no 1.4" drive
win xp disk wont format the partion it comes up with errors
Posted by Cycovision
If you delete all of the partitions and create just one new partition, it should format it ok
If not, you might have a dodgy hard drive