Re-install, no idea.. help

I have A6J that came with XP Home and just got XP Pro upgrade CD.

Before I upgrade to XP Pro I thought it is good idea to do clean re-install, format HD and delete the recovery partition etc.

Last night, I put recover CD 1 and chose option 3 from the menu which says
"Recover Windows XP to entire HD".

It ran fine but I still have recovery partition as well as all the other Asus softwares...

How can I format my HD and do clean re-install ?

Today, I tried again and put the recovery CD and chose option 1 which loaded into DOS.

But I can't find format or fdisk command!

And not only that... now I don't know how to get out for DOS.. how to restart the machine...

Hmm.. appologies for such a naive questions.. but please help..

 

You can make a boot CD using Nero which will give you FDISK.

 

If you want a FRESH os install (no asus partitions) with only xp pro....

1) back up any important documents
2 Make a backup cd of all your drivers. If your system didnt come with them, download them.
3) pop in your xp pro cd and boot from the dvd-rom. you may need to set the boot-order in bios. enter bios by pressing F2 on startup.
4) after booting xp pro from the dvd-rom, Delete all partitions, format, and install. Follow the instructions

 

My laptop came with recovery CD for XP Home edtion and I bought a XP Pro upgrade CD.

Can I still do format with upgrade CD ?

 

NO when you load an upgrade cd or even full install cd from windows. I believe that the format option doesnt come up. but its been a while i dont normaly use upgrade cds.but the upgrade isnt supposed to be the full OS really so its just adding on to windows so again format may not be an option.

 

Windows upgrade CD only for upgrading a lastest version having an old or previous version in hard drive. If you would like to format a hard drive, you must use a full version Windows CD.

 

Actually, you can technically do a clean install with an Upgrade CD for Windows XP - but at some point during the installation you will have to insert the CD with the previous version of Windows. Windows XP upgrade CDs are the only ones that this works for (won't work with Windows ME "upgrades" or 98 etc).

I don't know if a restore CD would work as a valid "previous version" in that situation though. I've only ever done it with OEM or retail CDs.

If you want to try, just boot off the Upgrade CD and follow the instructions. Its a fairly straight forward process. When you get to the format/partition part of the installation, just make sure you choose the maximum partition size allowable.

 

Yeah, I thought I won't be able to do format with upgrade CD but actually
it let me when I booted off from the CD.

And I expected that I would have to enter in the my recovery CD or at least the product key for my Home edit but no, nothing was needed.


However, there is one more problem though.

Before I formatted my HD, I deleted the recovery partition from the Windows->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management.

And after the format, I realise that my Hitachi Travelstar 100GB HD has only 95GB capacitiy.

Is this normal ? Or is there 5GB of hidden partition for previously deleted recovery partition...


Thanks guys.

 

There are several reasons for that. The first is that there are different ways of saying what a Gigabyte is. One of those is that it is 1024 MB, the other is 1000 MB. Naturally, Windows and Hardware manufacturers don't agree, so you see your drive listed as less when using it. The other (this might not be 100% correct) is that there are inevitable bad sectors on the disk, but it marks them as bad and won't use them, and adjusts it information accordingly, yielding a smaller disk size. My 100 GB drive shows about the same size (I don't have it up to say exactly what it is) and my 80GB drives (I have 2) show up as 74.5 GB. Don't worry about it, it is normal.

 

I remember there was a class action law suit years ago against the companys for false advertising drive sizes. Never heard anything more on it though.

 

Oh that's cool then.

Thanks.

 

A current lawsuit against Western Digital is up for settlement for any aftermarket destktop drives purchased 3/22/01 - 2/15/06. Class member benefit is a copy of EMC Dantz Retrospect Express 7, I believe. Details of the settlement here http://www.wdc.com/settlement/

Good day for the lawyers, anyway ($485,000) - not much for the consumers. Kind of a strange lawsuit.

 

You can also try creating a new Windows XP CD from your I386 folder on your HD. I had the same problem as you, I wanted to do a clean install but only had the recovery CDs... I tried following the steps in the link below and it worked fine.

Step-by-step instructions here: http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_Install/index.htm