formating hdd problem

[ccnicco48]

let me start by saying that i have two maxtor 250 hdd. before everything was running fine. then i started having problems so i formatted the drive.

first i used the wrong boot disk instead of the sp2 i used sp1, but i finished formatting the disk. and i even formated the second disk before i noticed that i had the wrong boot disk.

anyways, i downloaded boot disk for xp with sp2 and formatted the drive but for some reason for the second time it saying that xp is already installed after the format so i formatted the second drive to insdtall xp. then it works.

but now when i logged in xp i went ahead and formated the first drive in windows which i had to do to remove xp on that drive. and it worked, so i thought

i notice that when i do windows update the files go directly on the drive that xp is not installed on.

can someone help me figure out how to fully format my drive, so i can solve the update problem that i'm having.

btw i did both quick format and full format.

i want to be able to format both drives with no problem and completely remove xp. cause it seems like hdd problem to me but i'm not sure. since this formatting problem my pc seems to be a lil slower in boot up and opening files and such.

[sushrukh]

You can format or repartition all the drives or HDDs using the Windows XP Bootable CD.Just pop the CD in & boot with CD ROM support.When you get the installation options after booting with the XP2 CD,just choose the drive/drives you wanna format & select the format with NTFS.

[westy87]

Just to make sure you're not trying to setup RAID are you? In which case you would only need to install XP on one of the drives? If that is the case then, all you need is for one drive to have xp working properly, and I would suggest clearing the XP installation from the other drive.

If it is a RAID setup then I'm not sure sorry

[ccnicco48]

no i'm not trying to set up raid,

alsoi had to use 6 floppy boot disk and the the cd rom to boot because i'm installing from an upgrade cd lol cheating i know but i don't have a full version just upgrade.

it works as long as u put a full copy of win 98 for example but u don't need to install it just put it in when it's ask then pop back the xp upgrade disk and works perfect.

i'm gonna try and take one of the hdd and format and other and install xp there so there's no other way that it'll detect the other hdd. and i'll just put it back after i've installed windows and just format the second drive through windows. i hope it works cause i'm about to do it right now

wish me luck:icon_tiphat:

[trueg50]

Do a "format for NTFS" the non-quick one, for the drive you are putting XP on, and make sure to remove any and all partitions. Then use DBAN on the other drive to ensure it is clean from all windows installs. Then format that one in windows.

[Xero (1)ne]

Try installing on one drive first with the other one unplugged. Once windows XP is installed and settled in, plug in the other one and format it then it's ready to use!