HDD formatted with FAT need NTFS. please help

JimHa

Baseband Member
Messages
24
I had a few distros of Linux on my computer for the last month or so and now I'm at a point where I want to create a dual boot system on my PC. I tried to install windows last night, I reformatted the hard drive twice and windows XP home setup wont let me format my hard drive with the NTFS file system... which I need.

My question is is there any way to completely wipe out my drive and make it like it never ever had anything on it?

thanx -JimHa

EDIT : ... OH YAE. My curent operating system is SuSE Linux 9.0
 
i would install linux first making a partition with about a gig more than you need then use the remaining for windows.

Hopefully linux will be smarter when dealing with file formats.

When installing suse it should give you several options choose the one where it just makes a small partion just enough for the os and updates etc.
 
the linux boot manager works a lot better with windows than the windows boot manager works with linux so yeah, install linux first.
 
Tommy Boy said:
the linux boot manager works a lot better with windows than the windows boot manager works with linux so yeah, install linux first.


So basically I should keep SuSE linux the way it is on the primary partition and then just install windows XP as the second OS. When I was first learning about Linux I was told I can't put Linux in front of windows because windows doesn't use the right file system or something like that and it will kill certain files. Is there any truth to this ???
 
Something about it being bad to put it within the 1st cylinders in your drive. But my fedora is after my windows...no harm done.
 
thanks for the help guys but my main problem is that I can't put windows XP on my computer AT ALL because it says the disk was formatted with a different file system. Is there any way to completely wipe the drive clean at all ? I've already reformatted a few times.
 
JimHa said:
thanks for the help guys but my main problem is that I can't put windows XP on my computer AT ALL because it says the disk was formatted with a different file system. Is there any way to completely wipe the drive clean at all ? I've already reformatted a few times.

Download a Win98 bootdisk for bootdisk.com. Double click it when it downloads for it creat a boot disk on a blank floppy disk. Restart, Pop the floppy in your floppy drive, boot up and use FDisk to delete all partitions, then restart and shove your WinXP cd in and it will do the work for you :)
 
Umm guys, you mentioned a really good point, but then completly failed to realise the significant points it brings up.
The linux Boot loder is a lot better than windows, The linux installer is also a hell of a lot smarter than the windows installer!
Windows and linux cannot exist happily on the same partition.
Windows does not recognise the linux file format and will report that part of the disk as unformatted or damaged.
Windows does not recognise Linux and so will sipe over the boot loader with the windows boot loader
(and you have no way to access your linux installation (besides a floppy disk with a copy of the linux boot loader!)).
When duel booting you must install windows first, there is no real benefit to NTFS (and it wil just case you headaches in Linux), so format half the disk as FAT32, and install windows.
Now use the rest of the disk to install Linux.
Linuc will notce that windiows is installed and add it to the list of bootable OS's.
Now you can access all of your installations.

To completly wipe the disk use the windows XP installer to delete all of the partitions, then create a partition (you need to press C andnot jut enter).
 
Back
Top Bottom