Can I format drive partition C from DOS?

Question

I am going to do clean reinstallation of winxp from DOS, I ran this: format c: /fs:fat32, I ran it from window's DOS,not pure DOS, (the format.com copy from window \system 32, it's xp version, not win98,so it's can only run from window) but it was fail. do you have any solution for clean installation? My window xp was stored on D drive, so I can boot from A drive then switch to D, run d:\...i386\winnt, Thank for your help.

NOTE:I already have xp bootable floppy disk , but I need format C drive to completely delete files on C drive, not just delete or delete tree the files ,and not infect the existing partitions.

Answer 1

download a copy of partition magic 7.0. it is a 2 floppy program that will let you format, resize your partitions, convert, and create. it works from dead boot and has a mouse active GUI. best and easiest product for disk management.

Answer 2

1) Create XP boot disks by following the instructs here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&familyid=e8fe6868-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8
2) Boot the system with these boot disks and delete the existing partion on the C drive.
3) Install XP on C drive using the path the I386 folder on your D drive.
4) done

Answer 3

No bring about any understand. A physicalpersistent (one which you will place on your palms) could desire to be partitioned suited right into a single or dissimilar LOGICAL drives. The working gadget will look after eachpersistent one after the different. Formatting onepersistent has no result on the recommendation of diverse logicalpersistent, regardless of if diverse logicalpersistent is on the comparable physicalpersistent.

Answer 4

it would be easier if you just get a boot disk, insert disk and wait till everthing loads, type format c: once it is done, you can go on and install windows

Answer 5

yes
try command "fdisc" when you insert a bootable dos disk to your disk drive and then follow the instructions