double xp pro installation on same partition   

I seem to be having a problem with my XP Professional, and I was unable to 
format the hard disk using the Disk Management window since when I right 
click on my hard disk, the format option is unclickable.

So I tried to do a fresh install of XP and overwrite the current one, which 
didnt work. Now I have effectively two copies of XP Pro on the same 
partition. This isn't my main problem though, all I want is to reformat my 
hard disk....but I have not found any way of doing so that works.
I've tried the Recovery Console on the XP setup disk, I can't do it through 
Computer Management, I can't perform a fresh install because when I press 
enter on the drive I want to install it onto, it says "you cannot install 
over this partition because it contains temporary setup files"

I read an article on the Microsoft KB about formatting it, but after u use 
fdisk it tells you that the format command can only be used to create a FAT 
or FAT32 partition, can I not do an NTFS?

date: Sat, 13 May 2006 09:53:02 -0700   author:   BassMad

Re: double xp pro installation on same partition   

You cannot  from within XP (Disk management) format the drive on which XP is 
installed -XP will not permit you to do so. Rather than doing a "fresh" 
install the first choice should have been to "repair" the current 
installation.
Use fdisk - you can convert to NTFS file system during or after XP 
installation.  Also consider third party utilities such Partition Magic.

"BassMad"  wrote in message 
news:F27EF0B8-AEDD-4332-9557-ACCFE2487F81@microsoft.com...
>I seem to be having a problem with my XP Professional, and I was unable to
> format the hard disk using the Disk Management window since when I right
> click on my hard disk, the format option is unclickable.
>
> So I tried to do a fresh install of XP and overwrite the current one, 
> which
> didnt work. Now I have effectively two copies of XP Pro on the same
> partition. This isn't my main problem though, all I want is to reformat my
> hard disk....but I have not found any way of doing so that works.
> I've tried the Recovery Console on the XP setup disk, I can't do it 
> through
> Computer Management, I can't perform a fresh install because when I press
> enter on the drive I want to install it onto, it says "you cannot install
> over this partition because it contains temporary setup files"
>
> I read an article on the Microsoft KB about formatting it, but after u use
> fdisk it tells you that the format command can only be used to create a 
> FAT
> or FAT32 partition, can I not do an NTFS?

date: Sat, 13 May 2006 14:22:48 -0400   author:   AJR