Hi all,

I'm sure there must be a cheap (free?) way of clearing my dad's hard drive of every thing (inc Win 2000 pro and now 98se!) so I can install of XP pro but I'm blowed if I can find out just by 'googling'!

It has 1200 Duron ; 512 ram; 30GB HD; 32mb video; Int sound.

My sister tried to 'help' my dad by using HER pc's recovery disk to repair XP pro and obviously it didn't quite work! lol.
A family friend has tried to help by installing Win 2000 pro (why he couldn't reinstall XP pro I don't know!) but it caused my dad all sorts of problems (drivers etc) and as he is unfamiliar with it and being partially sighted he panics with things he can't fathom (like computers! lol). Therefore my dad doesn't want 2000 pro on his pc. I tried installing XP over it but 2000 wouldn't allow it saying it is virtually the same platform(?).
Also, the well intentioned friend partitioned his small 30gig hard drive to c:\ (2 gig-containing 2000 pro) and f:\ (the remainder) and dad is finding it difficult to use e.g save files, inc music etc.
I have tried booting with a Win 98se boot floppy and using fdisk but it won’t let me delete the partitions and neither can I format it. I have now installed Win 98se.
I tried installing XP but shortly in to setup get a message saying a file is corrupt - "The file sym_u3.sys is corrupted". I know the XP disk is okay. Now, I'm no pc expert (obviously! lol) but can follow instructions and built this pc I'm using, and as long as I understand what is being told/advised to me I can usually resolve problems with that help.

Therefore I would really appreciate it if someone on here could advise me how I can clear everything to blank hard drive to enable a clean install of XP pro.

Thanks in advance.

All the best,
Gary.

You have a full version XP CD with unique Product Key: Yes?

You can format with GParted

You can wipe if necessary with KillDisk.

Thanks jephree,

Yes, I have an available bootable XP disk with valid key.

Now, as previously, I have downloaded gparted but can't workout how to install it after. I have winrar but no sign of any setup file.

I have not seen Killdisk so will download and try to fathom that.

Again, thanks for your swift reply.

Please note that jephree said "full version XP CD"

whereas you replied; "... available bootable XP disk ..."

All commercial XP CD's are bootable. If yours is an upgrade you will need an earlier version of Windows (95, 98) to provide "proof" of eligability to proceed with an upgrade install.

Also note that GParted is an ISO file in order to create a Live CD.

You need to burn as an ISO or Disk Image.

Hi Dan,

Sorry for my misuse of terminology.

It is a 'full' copy.

Thanks for putting me straight. I already feel this site was the correct choice for assistance.

Cheers, mate.

Hi jephree,

Re gparted: I have Nero 7. I presume this will suffice for the iso file.

One small thing, how?

Apologies for my apparent ignorance of all things pc

In Nero Express on the opening screen there is the option to:

Disk image or saved project

I'm confused here. Why are you trying to use Nero anyway? You don't need it.

You need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order to CD first. Insert your original full copy of XP in the drive and Save and Exit out of the BIOS. This will force a reboot. Watch for the prompt to Boot to CD and press a key when prompted to do so. This will start the XP install process. From there, follow the prompts for partitioning and formatting. Set (or remove) any partitions you want, then format the drive/partitions using NTFS. After that, follow the prompt for a fresh install of Windows.

Hi Digerati,

Thanks for the input.

Obviously I tried as you suggested but as I mentioned in my original post setup was stopped with a reference to XP pro being too similar to 2000 pro to overwrite/format all partitions.

No, I don't get it either!!

This is why I am in a quandry and confused.

So I have installed 98se to try to do a clean XP install. However the partitions remain and there is undefined used space on hard drive (holding 2000 pro?).

I have reformatted on a few occasions previously so am quite comfortable with the install process.

Really, all I want to do is wipe the hard drive and start again! lol

Cheers.