problem in formating my com

[rascalboy]

hi, i hv some problem format my com. Previously i am using XP Home then i wish to upgrade to XP Pro however when i hv finish install my XP Pro, my file was not formated so i try to install 2nd times and now i hv two OS in my com. so can anyone teach mi wat should i do so i can format my com and remove those two OS and install them again.... thnx

[MHz]

You should be able to boot off the cd, when you start your system. When the menus come up, you should see an option for recovery console. Choose this option which you lead you to a dos prompt. At the prompt, type diskpart, then hit enter. It will startup and look like the old fdisk from a 9x system. From within this program, you can delete the partition. Once done, reboot the system and do a usual install.

Hope this helps you a bit?

[rascalboy]

still cannot.... the system ask my partition is being used by other process so cannot format...

[potter]

You should be able to boot to the cd then when u see your partitions there is an option above them to just delete the selected partition and just delete them 1 by 1 and when they all deleted install xp normally.

[totoymola]

If I understood your problem correctly, you want to format your partition/hard disk, right?

For some unknown reasons, I also experienced a similar problem. My bootable XPCD doesn't give me an option to format the partition. It only overwrites the existing Windows installation, which is not good for a clean install.

If you have a floppy disk drive, use a Windows 98 startup disk and boot from it. Then you can format you partitions/hard disks from there. But I suggest formatting from the RAM drive instead from the floppy disk drive, because it is faster.

Just in case you don't know how to format from DOS, just type format x: . Where x is the drive you want to format.

If you don't have a floppy disk drive on your computer (like me), it can be more difficult becuase you have to create a boot cd first.