Reinstall question?

[SuperCheetah]

Hey guys and girls!

Just a quick question. I'm about to reinstall Windows XP Pro, but I have 3 different partitions, one for Windows, one for Programs, and one for all my music, movies, etc.

I was just wondering if I can reformat my Windows and programs partition without losing all my other stuff on my big partition? I believe it can be done, but I REALLY don't want to lose over 70GB of movies, music, etc. Also, if you don't mind giving me a quick rundown on how to do it I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks guys and girls!!!

 

[boeingfixer]

Super, just install like your going to anyway, put the CD in and set your bios to boot from CD. It will ask you the usual questions and then start the install. it will get to a point where it see's the partitions and ask where you want it. Then choose "C". One word to the wise, if it doesn't give you a chioce, it will only wipe out the /windows and /doc's/settings folder, it will leave everything else untouched on "C". so if you want a total clean install on "C" you will have to format just "C". Good luck !1

 

[Phantasm66]

Just because you format one partition on a disk, it does not follow that you have to format them all. Indeed, you may even delete certain partitions on a disk (just don't try the active marked primary partition) without incurring any data loss on the other partitions....

How on Earth do you think I manage to have 5 plus Operating Systems on my machine??? 4 of these are on one hard drive... I sure as hell don't wipe all 4 of them when I want to reinstall one..... That's silly.

boeingfixer is correct. Boot from the CD and choose the installation partition as before (choosing the same one) - you can quick format that and it will not touch the others.

It is, however, ALWAYS a good idea to backup any important data anyway. Its up to you how you do this but I have an extra backup hard drive on my machine, the assumption being that its fairly unlikely that both data drives would go at once.... And data that's TOTALLY important (like that book I am writing) is backed up onto CDs and so forth....