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General discussion

One hard drive - FDisk or format?

Mar 26, 2004 10:37PM PST

I want to clean my hard drive (only have one) and then reinstall windows, but I'm confused as to whether I should fdisk or format it. I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Format is enough.
Mar 26, 2004 10:54PM PST

Simply explained (too simple maybe): a hard disk can have 0 (it's unusable then!), 1 or more partitions. Each partition becomes a drive-letter in Windows.
Fdisk is a (limited) partition manager, used to delete and create partitions.

Once you have a c:, you only need to format it. Which is: delete everything that's on it and initialize it to a state ready to receive files.

I assume you know what to do before you format the disk and how to proceed thereafter. A quick overview I wrote a few days ago: http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6618-0.html?forumID=6&threadID=17136&messageID=188641.
When it doubt: post for advice or helpful links.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Depends on OS! And for DOS/ Windows 95/98/ME, I go with FDISK.
Mar 26, 2004 11:22PM PST

I've found the partition tables can be corrupt and need refreshing so I start over with the FDISK. Depending on the OS being installed, even that may not be needed.

Here's the quick rundown...

DOS, Windows 95/98 = FDISK, then FORMAT C:/S

Widnows ME = FDISK, then let the installer format it.

NT,2000,XP,2003,Linux = Use the installer and it's tools to partition and then the installer will "prepare" the partition.

If you format a drive for XP (too common) I've watched people try to install the OS for weeks until they finally give up and just use the installer.

Bob