Formatting, Partitioning Hard Disks and Installing XP
There are any number of resources on the web to help you with formatting and partitioning hard disks and guide you through the installation process, with or without FDISK. Includes two downloadable tools for destroying hard disk partitions.
NOTE: If your hard disk already has NTFS partitions and you are planning to delete them, you must either boot from the XP CD or use the XP six floppy disk set and let Setup perform the task, or you must create a Windows 98 or Windows ME boot floppy disk and use the WIPEOUT or DELPART tools listed at the end of this page. FDISK cannot delete NTFS partitions that are logical drives on extended partitions.
Visit the Windows XP How To Articles page on this site. Covers getting started with XP, installation, configuration, multiboot, customising XP, networking, security & maintenance, help and support, remote assistance and remote desktop.
NTFS is the recommended file system for Windows XP and provides a number of benefits in terms of functionality, security, stability, availability, reliability, and performance. Read the articled named NTFS or FAT32? on this site if you need information to help you choose a file system.
More Specific Installation Guides
Knowledge Base article: This step-by-step article describes how to partition and format a hard disk with Windows XP. Before you can install an operating system, you must first create a primary partition on the first physical hard disk (Disk 0) on your computer, and then format a file system on that partition. This partition is named the System partition. Alternatively, you can create a separate partition for the operating system on any physical hard disk. This is named the Boot partition. The System partition on Disk 0 can also be used as a Boot partition.
Knowledge Base article: This article explains how to set up Windows XP as a multiple-boot system with the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, and Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 Microsoft Windows 95 Operating System Release 2 (OSR2), Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows 3.x. You can install more than one operating system on your computer and choose which operating system you want to use every time you start your computer. This is often called a dual-boot or multiple-boot configuration.
An excellent article for those unfamiliar with FDISK. Includes lots of screenshots. From the website: "Using 'fdisk' does not have to be a difficult chore. If you know what to expect, it is a rather easy task. Note: If you are 'clean' installing Windows 2000, XP Home or XP Pro, and do not wish to multi-boot your system, you do not have to run fdisk before hand as, during the install process, options for creating partitions are built in. WARNING: Using fdisk to 'resize' or recreate a partition will effectively destroy what ever information you have on your hard drive. Do not use fdisk if you wish to save any information that it may contain."
Another excellent article from blackviper for first time installers. Includes lots of screenshots.
From Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: "It's a hassle for a variety of reasons, but sometimes clean installing Windows is the best bet. This is doubly true of XP, especially if you were previously running a Windows 9x-based OS. The upgrade procedure works, and works well, but it still leaves your hard drive littered with the remains of the past, wasting valuable disk space and making it difficult to tell which files are OK to delete and which should be left alone. A clean installation of XP will also give you the best results, performance-wise."
Managing NTFS Partitions Within XP
The Diskpart Command-Line Utility enables a superset of the actions that are supported by the Disk Management snap-in. The Disk Management snap-in prohibits you from inadvertently performing actions that may result in data loss. It is recommended that you use the Diskpart utility cautiously because Diskpart enables explicit control of partitions and volumes.
Destroying NTFS Partitions Using Win98 or WinME Boot Floppy
Below are links to two utilities that can be used to destroy NTFS partitions from a Windows 98 boot floppy. Click the link to download the floppy image. It supports FAT32 hard disks. You can also use a Windows ME boot floppy if you have one. Both will destroy the data on your entire hard disk. Use at your own risk. Short instructions are included for WIPEOUT in a text file.
When you use Fdisk.exe to partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB (64 gigabytes, or 68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard disk. A supported fix is now available from Microsoft.
Managing Partitions from MS-DOS
These articles will assist you in managing your partitions if you use FAT32 with Windows XP:
This article describes how to start Windows XP Setup from an MS-DOS command-line.
Use the above link if you want to create your own Windows 98 boot disk.
This article describes the Fdisk and Format tools and how to use them to partition or repartition a hard disk. It describes the following topics: How to Use the Fdisk and Format Tools; Important Considerations; Before You Use the Fdisk and Format Tools; How to Partition and Format a Master Hard Disk; How to Partition and Format a Slave Hard Disk; How to Repartition and Format the Extended Partition and Logical Drives of a Hard Disk; Frequently Asked Questions.