Windows XP - Partitions ?

[RickM]

Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
I remember the "OLD" days of FDISK and FORMAT.

It has been a while for me since my last computer build.
I feel my old 20GB HDD is going to crash soon.
I remember formatting this HDD as "NTFS" not FAT32 when I installed XP.

I picked up a Western Digital 160GB at a pretty good price $79.99 .

I remember running FDISK to create partitions when I installed XP on this old 20GB, maybe I did not need to create the partitions.
I have heard that Windows XP does not require partitions.

Could one of you "Pro's" tell me if this is true ?
Any information will be appreciated.
Rick

 

[Rick]

XP, like any operating system, requires partitions.

However, the old 'boot and run fdisk' days are long gone.

When you begin the process to perform a clean install by booting from the Windows XP install disc, you'll get to a point where it will says, "Welcome to Setup". Press ENTER to continue and F8 to accept the EULA. You'll be asked if you'd like to repair your Windows installation, press ESC and you will be taken to XP's disk partitioner (diskpart.exe). Use the arrow, enter, DEL and C keys to delete and recreate partitions. Afterwards, format the drives in NTFS (quick is fine, although you can certainly use full if you don't trust the drive's physical health).

Once that's done, continue installing XP and you should be golden.

FDISK does not support the NTFS file system and for this reason, is completely useless compared to XP's much nicer diskpart utility.

 

[RickM]

Hi Rick,
Thank you very much for the very helpful information,
it is much appreciated.
RickM

 

[Tedster]

Once you have you system up and running, if you feel you need additional partitions go to computer - disk management in control panel and click on the drive you wish to add a parition to.

 

[tipstir]

click on start
click on run
type: compmgmt.msc

 

[dopefisher]

Hi Rick,
Thank you very much for the very helpful information,
it is much appreciated.
RickM

on a side note, if it wasnt for rick being here, "rickm" would have been "rick!"