WinXP & Fdisk
 

I'm attempting to remove an install of xp from a scavaged drive. Simply formatting the drive doesn't do the trick, but I've been told that Fdisk is the answer. The problem is I've been unable to run Fdisk.exe from within xp. I've tried the Start > Run > CMD > Fdisk method, but it returns with "incorrect dos version". Is there a way to run the command from within xp that doesn't involve a boot disk from a previous version of windows? (My floppy is cooked & I don't particularly want to replace it.)

So I assume this drive is the second drive in the system? What happens when you run format?

(may not be applicable but...) burn a CD as a boot disk?

Knoppix
 

Might be a little overkill, but you can get Knoppix or some other CD based operating system, boot up, and 'fdisk' the drive. After that, you should be able to do whatever you want with it (i.e. it wont be bootable)

Have you tried Partition Magic?

Running format on the drive results in an error message. Something about not having permission to a particular folder. The drive itself is installed as a slave. I'd like to use it as pure data storage.

I'll read up on Knoppix, sounds like it could be a viable option.

Partition magic might work but my wallet is about to starve to death as is.

What I'd really like to know is if WinXP has the ability to run older dos programs. I suspect an emulated dos environment would be sufficent to run fdisk.

If you are using that drive as a slave, you should be able to do the following:

• Open the Control Panel
• Open Administrative Tools
• Open Computer Management
• Under the Storage node on the left side, select 'Disk Management'
• Find the drive/partition you want to 'fdisk', and right click it and select "Delete Parition..."

Anyone familiar enough to even look for fdisk should be able to make out what Microsoft was doing with this Logical Disk Manager thingy. Basically a fdisk GUI.

Thanks that did the trick nicely. Don't know why I didn't think to look there in the first place. *kicks self*