Need Help Formatting Hard Drive

[Rish]

I've got a dual boot system set up on my PC, on my C: is Windows ME and on my F: is Windows XP.

I want to format my F: but keep my C: intact. The problem herein lies with the fact that my F: is formatted in the NTFS filling system whereas my C: is as FAT32.

I used my Windows ME startup disk to boot up my system in DOS mode (like I usually do when I want to format a drive) and then tried typing in format F:. However, I get an error message saying that it can't read from the drive or something (can't remember exactly what, but if this info is essential to you, I'll check again).

My hunch is that DOS can't actually read the drive as it's in the NTFS file system. So how can I format my F:? Any help?

[spankovit]

When you boot up you need to use the FDISK command in order to set your F: drive back to a dos compatible..

[Rish]

Could you tell me how to exactly do that? Because I've no idea how to...

[nivek329]

Boot-up using your XP cd instead of a floppy and there should be no problems.

[TriForce190]

yup that is right... If ya formatted the drive New Technologie File System (NTFS) and ya want to run a startup disk from ME it will not read it cause the File System is NT
and floppy's are File Allocation Table (FAT) sow ya cant read the floppy...
To format the F: partition insert XP-cd, restart computer. when it starts up from CD ya must delete the F: partition...
When ya did do that create partition again format it FAT32 and it will all be fine.
Goodluck with it m8

[nivek329]

yup that is right... If ya formatted the drive New Technologie File System (NTFS) and ya want to run a startup disk from ME it will not read it cause the File System is NT
and floppy's are File Allocation Table (FAT) sow ya cant read the floppy...
To format the F: partition insert XP-cd, restart computer. when it starts up from CD ya must delete the F: partition...
When ya did do that create partition again format it FAT32 and it will all be fine.
Goodluck with it m8
Nearly there m8 but if Win XP is going on the F drive it has to set as an NTFS partition. XP will run on FAT32 but it's really unstable and not a good idea!

[TriForce190]

yup that is right nivek329... it can but its unstable.
Beter just format whole Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and make a partition of 10GB formatted with NTFS and install XP on it....
When XP has been installed ya can run Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and configure the rest of the HDD.
Goodluck with it m8