Major Reformatting Problem! *PLEASE HELP*
 

I'm typing this on my mom's computer...

Ok, basically, I'm an IDIOT! I tried reformatting my system and screwed it up majorily.

I use Windows XP Home Edition, and I wanted to get back some of my disk space that I had used up (I make movies and they take up tons of space). I've heard about boot disks and all but didn't think I would need one for what I was going to do. So, I tried setting up Windows XP but I didn't have enough space to do it with on my partioned space. Nothing helped, and before I knew it, I coudn't even boot Windows at all! So here I am, with no computer and finals coming up... :(

If anyone could PLEASE help me out, I'd really, really appreciate it!

:(

Hmm, not too sure I got all the details correct. The title of the thread mentions 'formatting', but the body infers 'reinstall.'

You tried to reclaim some space by formatting? That's certainly one way to get some free space =) But if your drive is out of space on the reinstall, it appears you haven't formatted. If that was your intention, you forgot that step.

If you don't want to format, you can delete your existing windows installation to free up space (since you're reinstalling anyways) for the new one. From a dos prompt type deltree c:\windows

No, no... I'm bad with computers, so bear with me.

I just wanted to reformat Windows XP Home edition... I followed the directions, but it ended up that I didn't have enough "partitioned" space to actually setup Windows again. So now I can't do ANYTHING but stay on the Setup screen basically. I don't even know how to get to DOS so that I can type that command you gave me!

The following message is what I am given when I try to restart Windows XP:

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

So I can't do anything! No DOS, nothing. I have the Win XP Reinstallation CD in my CD-ROM, but it's obviously not helping to start Windows.

I'm so lost!

*(&(^#@#(%#@%#!!!!

ok, take a DEEP breath. it'll be okay.

now. let's ask a few questions see if we can figure out what you did.

#1: you backed up your stuff... right? if so, you may be better off just wiping the drive and starting from scratch.

#2: you can't reformat windows. you reformat a hard drive (this means completely erasing it, and starting from scratch), and you reinstall an operating system. usually you do both, in that order.

#3: what directions were you following? If they're online would you please post a link?

#4: how is your drive partitioned? do you have 1 phsycal hard drive, but like c: drive d: drive and e:drive or something? how big is each one?

Theoretically, if you can boot from the windows install CD (perhaps go into the bios to set the proper boot order?), you can then remove all partitions on the harddisk. This will then allow you to "reclaim" the disk, by creating new partitions and formatting them.

All this partitioning and formatting can be done from the Windows setup program, without any need for such ancient things as "DOS". But if you must, you can try a MS-DOS boot disk, use FDISK to remove the partitions, and then set up windows from the CD.

However, if you do any of the above, your harddisk will be wiped, including all the data on it. Depending on your goal, this might not exactly be what you want. :)

What he said. Im pretty confused here as to what you did...

sailor... I'm a she... :P

Yeah, you need to give us a bit more info before we can help. As far as I understood it, you have your HDD partitioned into different drives, and the one you want Windows on is too small to install.

If you have your data backed up, it's as simple as deleted the partitions using the Windows XP CD, creating ONE partition (C:), then formatting it and installing XP on it. This can ALL be done using the Windows XP CD like Dragonlich said.

Formatting and installing Windows XP is very, very simple as long as you have your data backed up. Tell us if you have partitions and how big they are if ya want detailed instructions (which we can all give). Good luck!

-Lasereth

boot from the windows XP setup disk, find the recovery console, login in to the last version of windows usually C:\windows , navigate the disk to a placve where you know are some giant files you can recover and delete them

it sounds complicated but its not, just follow the instructions, the only complicated part is finding the data you can delete that will give you enough space, you may get away with just deleting the pagefile.sys which is usually at c:\pagefile.sys

http://support.microsoft.com/default...NoWebContent=1

After thats done, rerun the installer from the XP CD. you may even get away with a recovery step from the boot CD instead of a reinstall.

Free up as much space as you possibly can without deleting stuff you need.

if you get stuck come back and get some more clarifications, if you can use dos you can use the recovery console.

Everyone,

The problem has been resolved. :) Turns out I had to call tech support and do some debugging of my system... It seemed pretty complicated. I'm back up and running now.

THANKS! :d

Sorry about that ;)

Milkman, glad to hear the problem was fixed.

s'okay, I know how weird it is for the male population to associate boobs w/ technical competence ;)

glad things are back running MilkMan!! :)

*still kinda wonders what the problem was*

CHEERIOS---there is no way in hell any one in deep self TEXAS would ever take you as a HE>>>L/Y..:D

I think the problem was that I didn't erase enough disk space to actually reinstall Windows XP... I tried to do it all backwards, basically. So it ended up I was stuck on the DOS type setup thing and couldn't boot Windows... I had to debug the entire system and erase it.