Format XP by booting from the XP CD

BIOS must be set to boot from CD before hard drive.

1. Formatting an XP System Disk by booting from the XP CD is accomplished by loading the Recovery Console by typing R at the first window.
2. After selecting the Windows installation you want to access and typing in the Admin password [leave blank if no password was created] you will see a command prompt.
3. Type Map & press ENTER
4. Note the letter designation of the drive you want to format. [write it down]
5. type format x:/fs:fat32 then press ENTER, where x is the drive letter you want to format. Substitute NTFS or FAT if desired.
6. Type Y to confirm your selection and then type exit & press ENTER to restart computer.
7. To view other format commands, type format/? & press ENTER at the RC command prompt.

Format XP by booting from XP CD using an aborted setup

Note: I find this method to format a NTFS partition more time consuming than the use of FDISK from MS-DOS, but if a boot disk is not available use this method.

1. Formatting an XP System Disk by booting from the XP CD and using the setup routine is initiated by selecting ENTER at the first window. Example follows in step #2

2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below

   This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
   Windows XP to run on your computer:
   
   To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
   
   

   To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R

   
   

   To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. After selecting ENTER you will be prompted to accept the EULA and then be given the option to choose the location to install XP. Your choices will include deleting partitions. Choose to delete the XP partition and any other partition you want to remove and then press ENTER.

4. Choose F3 to end setup.

5. You will need to use a boot disk or boot from the OS you want to install to format the unallocated space.