Reformating - not sure what to do?

the_person

Baseband Member
Messages
25
Hey ppl,

I got two hard-drives on my computer, one 200gb and one 80gb, im running xp off the 200gb drive and i want to reformat the computer. Im not sure if i just reformat the 200gb drive then both hard-drives will be wiped clean once i start the computer up again or would i have to do them seperately. I know that if i right click on the 80gb drive it comes up with the option to format. If i did this through xp would it wipe that drive clean? Im really not an expert at all when it comes to bios and reformat so any help would be appreciated..
 
Since they are differend hdds they are also different partitions. So when u boot from the xp cd and start to reinstall windows it will show both of these partitions there. Just delete the 200gb partition and reinstall the windows on that one. If u don't do anything with the other partition all of the files that are in there will stay there.
 
hey guys,
Still getting more problems, was reading another forum and the guy was sayin that his motherboard A8V-E Deluxe PCIe needed the VIA RAID drivers installing before XP, I also have this motherboard i've no idea how to do this. I'm not an expert when it comes to BIOS and if somebody could tell me how to get the drivers and walk me through how to install them it would be a great help...
 
Are you working with SATA hard drives or IDE hard drives?

The VIA RAID drivers the other guy is talking about probably pertains to SATA hard drives he has installed. In order to load XP on a SATA drive, there are drivers that need to be installed first. When booting from XP cd ... as soon as the blue screen comes up, it will ask you if you have third party drivers to install ... and if you do ... press F6. If working with SATA drives ... then you would do this step.

If you are working with SATA drives ... let us know and we'll walk you through getting the drivers installed. If not (using IDE instead) ... dont sweat it.

As to your original question, loading XP on the 200 gb won't affect your 80 gb hard drive ... as long as you dont do anything to it in the partitioning phase of your XP installation. You'll come to a screen that lists your hard drives and their partitions. As long as you know which is which, delete and reformat only the 200 gb, your 80 gb will remain untouched.
 
thanx alot for the help guys, really appreciate it, i'd be computerless by now if it wasnt for you lot lol. As for my hard-drives, they're both SATA so my via raid tool is telling me. If you would'nt just guiding me through, it would be a great help. Thanx..
 
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