Deleting hard drive partition/ formatting drive?

Question

If I delete a hard drive partition and i only have one, will I be able to make another? and if so, how? also, if i just reformat my hard drive, and it deletes everything including my OS, am I able to just reinstall it with my CD for reinstalling windows?

Answer 1

If you don't want to lose your data while reorganizing your disk space I recommend you to use Acronis Disk Director. It is a reliable partitioning utility that won't grieve you. Follow the link to learn more: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

Answer 2

Deleting a partition doesn't format the hard drive. All your information is still there, but it's marked as free space so your computer treats it like empty. My Computer will not show any hard drive space that doesn't have a partition. If the device manager still sees it, then you should see it from going into 'manage' and then 'disk management'. You won't see it at the top though. You'll see it in the lower window. If you have two hard drives, one should be labeled Disk 0 and the other Disk 1. One of them should be labeled as unpartitioned space. Right click that empty space and select format. EDIT: There's two ways you can format your drive that I frequently use when odd things like this happen. As long as the hard drive shows up in the BIOS. The easier one is to run the windows xp setup disk like you're going to install windows. The first prompt is disk management page. You can create a partition there and then hopefully it'll show up in 'disk management' from your windows environment. You COULD format it here, but what you have to do is watch it format and remove the install disk when it restarts so it doesn't install windows. The other way is to use a windows 98 boot disk and use its partition manager. You'll either need a 3.5 in floppy with the boot files or a windows 98 install CD. Google it if you need either of them. The first option might make it so that every time you start your computer, you have to choose between booting windows and continuting the install you stopped halfway through. To fix that, right click 'my computer' then click 'properties' click the Advanced tab click settings under 'startup and recovery' click edit under system startup delete the string thats asking to continue installation and save it.

Answer 3

as long as you have the original discs that came with the computer you can format the drive and reinstall windows, while booting from the windows disc there is an option for making/deleting the partitions on the hard drive

Answer 4

If your computer is slow and you are just wiping out everything to reinstall your system then you really don't have to wipe out the current partition... just format... also IF your a system restore cd, it will reinstall your os.. If your not really sure, DON'T do this on your own.. Get local advice to see what you have!