windows formatting problem

Hello all,



I am installing windows on a previously used hard drive. This means that the hard does have data already on it, but from my experience windows will just reformat and wipe everything clean when you reinstall it. However it is only alowing me to format the previously non used portion of my disk. So somehow everything I had on there before is staying on there and I am not able to format over it.



Any help will be greatly appreciated.



Don't know if it's important but the disk I am installing to did not have windows on it. It was a secondary drive.

First of all Windows will only format a new primary once it detects it when creating it with the disk tools seen in XP and now Vista or after using a 3rd party program like Partition Magic or the free Linux tool GParted.

XP will install right onto Fat16 and Fat32 type partitions as well as on NTFS 5.0 types. Any existing copy of Windows even a previous copy of XP is simply replaced when the installer deletes the folders for the first. The quesion now is the type of partition currently on the drive like a Linux VFat or Apple/Mac type incompatible to MS Windows.

If the existing partition is not an MS type then you will need a 3rd party drive like one of those mentioned earlier. Wiping the drive is simply a matter of deletion of the current one to make the entire drive available. Once that is done a new NTFS primary can be created by the disk tools seen when running the XP installer if you have not already created the new one with the drive tool used. XP will then format it at the time Windows is installed.

It was an ntfs formatted drive before.



Should I change jumper settings?

If the drive's jumper was set to the slave postition and is now at the end of the ide data cable you would move that to master or in some prebuilt systems left at cable select or simply remove the jumper as many see. But you also mentioned a portion of the drive where XP would install to suggesting either drive space left unallocated or having a second partition on the drive originally.

The smart move would be to first backup anything left on the existing partition before seeing that removed completely. A new fresh primary would the drive's jumper then set correctly would see a good clean install of Windows go on.

From findings here however the XP installer tends to miss a very small amount of drive space when using that to partition a drive during installation. But it's a quick method for the less experienced while the live for cd version of GParted will fully detect the 1-8mb of drive space XP misses.

Sorry, I'm having a little trouble understanding what you're saying. I'm not very computer saavy . Anyways, the disk was never partitioned before. I'm trying to install windows on this single partition drive. I have backed up everything I need, I just want to format the whole drive and have a single partition of the entire hard drive's capacity.



Cod jumper setting affect windows not letting me format over the old data on the disk?

The first thing is looking at the rear of the drive after seeing if it is plugged into the end or middle connector. The second of couse is verifying that the jumper IF an ide not sata type drive is the intended drive. Serial ATA drives see a data cable of their own while ide drives are on a cable with a second hard drive or optical(cd or dvd) type drive. Position on a two drive cable will usually determine the jumper setting on each drive.

The next question of couse would be the version of Window or OS to be installed. That will determine the partition type while XP can also be installed on a Fat16/32 partition Vista requires an NTFS 5.0 type which is present already.

For reformatting with XP you need to slave the drive in another system to use the Disk Management tool and right click to choose the format option. XP lacks what is now seen on the Vista installation dvd namely the option to format an existing NTFS 5.0 partition with the improvement in drive tools seen there.

if its a pata drive then make sure the jumper on the back is set to master also unplug any other hdds you have in the pc untill windows is installed.

If you have a sata and want to see Windows installed there the Windows installer will still place boot files like the boot.ini file for XP and the ntldr files on the first ide drive while the Windows and other folders are created on the sata drive selected. That was certainly tested out lately when XP was reinstalled on the first of two sata drives while Vista is on the single ide drive. Ide overrides sata needing a boot from the Vista install disk later to use the repair startup problems automatic repair tool now seen with Vista inplace of the recovery console.

My goof! I seemed to had forgotten to unplug the ide drive or simply testing that out when the opportunity presented itself.

garrrgh I still cannot get windows setup to recognize the whole drive. I have set the jumper on the hard drive to master, and I have the hard disk plugged into the end of the ide cable.



Windows still will not allow me to make a partition the size of the entire drive.



Please halp.

One trick I have used before is, try installing this as a slave drive in a different computer that already has windows. Boot to windows, right click on the drive and select format. Let it format.

Now take it out and put it in the system you want to install windows on. Install windows normally.