How do I Erase my hard drive so I have full HDD space?

Question

In the past i kept reinstalling windows. This caused many partitions to bulid up and now i have extemely low HDD space. My HDD id 35GB and now i have 200MB. There are no large files or progrmas causing this problem. It is just the partitions. I have no problem with deleting all my data. I have tried using some programs but they do not work.

Answer 1

Assuming you have Windows XP

Re-install windows BUT...During the install process
1. Delete ALL the partitions
2. Reformat the hard drive
3. Continue with Windows Installation.

Here is how
1 Boot from the CD not the hard drive.. You may need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order. Boot from CD must be before boot from the Hard Drive.
Put CD in and restart the computer..hit any key when prompted.
2. When the Welcome to Windows Setup comes up press Enter
3. At this step look carefully at your options you will be able to choose which partition to set up Windows on. You want to delete ALL the partitions and then choose to re-format the Hard Drive PRIOR to continuing with windows setup.. The
Options to do this will be listed.
4. Continue with Windows Installation

This will return your Hard Drive to nearly Full use. NOTE Windows will reserve some 8 Megabytes as a reserve partition, but the rest of the hard drive will be usable.

Answer 2

I'm lost. Do you have two external drives? Then don't call one of them "this external hard drive" and the other "this mac disk". Please simplify like this.... -- "internal HDD" = MacBook Pro internal. -- "ext. HDD A" = one external -- "ext. HDD B" = the other. (You might call a drive "this mac disk" if you also have an NTFS drive.) You say "I partitioned this toshiba external hd to have 145 gb on it." Does that mean the Toshiba has two partitions... or three or four? Did you choose 145GB based on needing 142? That might work, might not. You will find out when you copy the files, and that would probably have taken about 2 hours if you had a Firewire 800 connection (One reason for buying the MBP is to have FW). A much simpler idea would have been to use Disk Utility to "Restore" the files from the internal HDD to one ex. HDD. You need the same space on the external as the data. Then boot to the ext. HDD, and restore back. In fact, neither method makes any sense at all. Why erase a drive and then put all the files back? What do you think that can do for it? If you are hoping to repair errors found in Disk Utility after "Repair Disk", you probably can't make a good backup of the OS. The errors will play havoc with your plan. Best to erase and then install the OS from the original source (How? Depends on the OS version, and you are not telling for some reason.). Then use the backup as best you can. EDIT: DO NOT solicit one-on-one answer via personal email. That's not how it works here. Yahoo Answers guidelines prohibits private answers. Every answer should be typed right here on the Yahoo Answers page.

Answer 3

If you have the windows install disk (full version) when you boot from it, windows should ask you where you want to the new install. Point it at the C. At some point you should be given the chance to use the old partition or get rid of the old one(S) and made a new one. You will then need to format the new partition.
After format, load windows to that disk partition. Remember that you should format as NTFS file system if your using XP.
Also, I don't think its a good idea to have more than one active (system) partition on the same drive. Read all windows instructions when you do the above. You want to erase all extra system partitions.

See ya

Answer 4

Depending which windows version, computer and or hard drive type, starting with a clean slate (format drive) is best. Since you don't mind losing current data this makes things easier. Two ways to go: 1. Manual 2. With eraser software.

Below are some sites to help you get started. Many more sites are available...use GOOGLE.COM to search. Use questions like "formatting hard disk drives?" or other questions, then choose the easiest for you.

Again, it's my belief that when this much has been done to a drive, starting fresh (erasing ALL) and reinstalling windows is best.

Tip: your drive is kind of small too, so you may want to start budgeting for bigger drive. Also, depending on current computer and availability of installation CD’s, Disk’s or other software can lead to complete replacement of PC. Research your options then decide which one is best for you.

Answer 5

If it's what you say, and you have useless partitions on your drive (which in my experience, I don't think this is your case given the size of your drive).

But if it is, you can delete partitions under Start | Programs | "Administrative Tools", "Computer Management", "Disk Management".

However, you are not going to be able to add the extra space to your existing c:\ drive without a tool like partition magic. You can create a new partition though with all the space.

Answer 6

You need to use a program called fdisk to remove the partitions, and make a primary partition. If you have an old windows 98 startup disk then just insert it (making sure that ur computer boots from the floppy drive first) and run fdisk.

Answer 7

Use your XP installation disk to wipe out all the partitions on HD.

Answer 8

i had good luck w/"partition magic" bought on ebay. a windows xp cd will let you delete partitions too.

Answer 9

start your window in command prompt, change drive letter from 'c' to 'a', and type the following 'format c:', it will format the whole drive.

Answer 10

it's system restore option you maybe want to uncheck.

Right click on my computer --> properties --> system restore

turn it off for all drives or adjust it as you want it to.