xp problem

[The Hunter]

All kinds of problems here. I picked up a 40 gig from a friend, and when it was formatted, apparently he left a partition behind, or part of an old os there. Can I remove the other partition using the xp cd, or do have to do it all from a full install? The reason Im asking is that I have one very confused drive right now, as it sounds like its beating itself to death when defragging. I suspect that you are going to say the best thing to do would delete all partitions,format and reinstall. PS, I have never delt with partitions before.

[cpugeniusmv]

Microsoft provides some very limited partitioning functionality on the Windows CD (and in the Disk Management MMC Snap-in...), but it's all destructive.

If what you're aiming to do is make the main partition span the whole disk (without losing data), you'll need a third party utility such as Acronis Disk Director, or Powerquest (Symantec?) Partition Magic.

[The Hunter]

Ahh well at least it will finally be a clean install. Its no big deal as this install is only a few days old, so there isnt that much to loose. I have all of my software for this purpose in a little case already to go. It should be redone any way as when I boot up it sees xp, and an unrecognized os there. No wonder it makes some wierd sounds when defragging. LOL

[cpugeniusmv]

Ahh well at least it will finally be a clean install. Its no big deal as this install is only a few days old, so there isnt that much to loose. I have all of my software for this purpose in a little case already to go. It should be redone any way as when I boot up it sees xp, and an unrecognized os there. No wonder it makes some wierd sounds when defragging. LOL
I don't think partition layouts should affect the sound a drive is making :-S

[The Hunter]

It appears there is a lot of garbage left behind from the old install, and I was hoping it was from that crap that it was making that noise. Note I said hoping, as I got a bad feeling about this being a waste of time. Its fireball 40 gig, that was supposed to be in very good shape. I dont know if these drives were inherently noisy or not.

[cpugeniusmv]

Its fireball 40 gig, that was supposed to be in very good shape. I dont know if these drives were inherently noisy or not.
That may very well be.

[The Hunter]

I know its a much faster drive than what Im used to, although the only checks I did on it was using aida32 as that is how I found out my old drive was croaking on me.

[The Hunter]

What I found out so far is that they were tough, but noisy as hell.

[The Hunter]

Some quotes:
While transferring the data from the old PC, we got to directly compare the noise levels of the old drive (a recent Quantum Fireball) and the new Seagate. Suffice it to say that Dad was pleased I'd pushed him to get the Seagate…

[cpugeniusmv]

I'm always amazed at how quiet newer drives are...

Old drives are just loud :-\

[The Hunter]

My fujitsu was fairly quiet, but it was a much slower drive also. Its also possible that its just the faster drive, and the pc not having any sides on it. LOL

[Oryx]

if your going to do a fresh install and don't want anything on the drive then just follow the steps when installing winxp ,, 1 delete partition 2 create partition in the unpartitioned space
simple other than that get partition magic its free

ohh wait its not

[Kyle06]

Microsoft provides some very limited partitioning functionality on the Windows CD (and in the Disk Management MMC Snap-in...), but it's all destructive.

If what you're aiming to do is make the main partition span the whole disk (without losing data), you'll need a third party utility such as Acronis Disk Director, or Powerquest (Symantec?) Partition Magic.

I'm going to have to agree with cpu I;ve had some good luck with Acronis.... Very good program

[The Hunter]

Actually Im going to use some disk manager software to save my os, and clean things up.

[Greylin]

I was going to say you could try Ghosting your install and then wiping the drive clean and reinstalling from the Ghost image.