Deleting a partition in Win XP?

Question

I have reinstalled my Win XP cd a few times in the past, the other day I noticed my computer moving extremly slow, so I decided to just look at what files, music, movies, etc. are in my computer. Needless to say once I deleted alot of these things I didnt need, my computer is now back to what it was. However each time that I reinstalled Win XP I noticed it did work a little slower.

Well while I was in looking at the files, I noticed that all the files that have been on my computer have stayed on, basically I just added more and more of the same files of Win XP to the same computer. I thought that when I selected a fresh install, that it would delete all previous files. I never selected to delete the partition though.

If I delete the partition during a new install of Win XP, what will happen and what will I need to do. Ive heard its horrible to delete them, and Ive heard that its best to delete and create a new partition for each new install of a new software. What do I do here?

Answer 1

It's horrible to delete them if you have something on them. It sounds like you have a smaller hard drive, and if thats the case and you have two partitions or more.. you need to delete them. Save whats on them by drag and dropping the items you want to save somewhere else.



Throw your XP cd in and go to the setup options.. delete the partitions, cancel out of the setup screen, eject the cd and restart. Problem solved.

Answer 2

Nothing will happen other than you losing any information that was on the previous partition. Who told you it was "horrible" to delete a partition? Unless you are a dual-booting or upgrading (i.e. XP > Vista), you are going to have to delete the old partition anyway.



Just make sure you have all the drivers you need for your motherboard, video card, etc. for when the installation finishes. Mine came on a CD which is good because XP wouldn't recognize that I had an ethernet connection until I had installed the drivers for my board.

Answer 3

There is a much simple way to delete partition. Just log on to Windows XP. Right Click > "My Computer" > Manage



In the computer management window > Storage > Disk Management



You can c the physical drives in your system and its partitions. Right click on the partition u wish to remove > Delete.



You can also create partition by this utility. Its pretty nice tool by Windows XP.



Cheers

Answer 4

It is not horrible to delete a partition or to re-format one. But make sure you back up all the data you need first.



Copy all the files you dont want to loose to a CD or DVD and then do it, because deleting/formating a partition will erase all data (files/movies/everything) on that partition. So be careful.

Answer 5

The third answer is honestly perfect. in case you delete the regular partition the place living house windows is living, you haven't any longer something left yet to do a clean set up. only be certain you're working the setup application from the CDRom and not from living house windows itself. a thank you to try this's to boot from the living house windows CD and delete the partition from the set up wizard.

Answer 6

If u have all the bacup of the data.u can insert the Bootable CD and delete all the partions.and create the new partions.Then only the system can't repeate the previous problem ok.