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I just got a new laptop from Dell and am trying to partition my 60GB drive so that the C Drive is 15GB (will hold OS and programs), and the D Drive is 45GB (for data). I have an XP Pro disc and am trying to get all of the trash that Dell automaticallly loads off of the machine.

I have no problem partitioning the drives, but formatting for this configuration seems impossible.

When you first partition, it shows both partitions as format [New (Raw)]. So naturally I want to format them as NTFS. The problem is, format isn't an option at this point, the only option is to install Windows on one of the partitions. If I choose the first partition (C Drive), I never get asked to format the second partition (D Drive), so that portion of the hard drive is unusable when the OS gets booted.

If I choose the second partition to install the OS, then after formatting that partition it asks me to format the first partition. This works fine, but now I have my OS on D Drive (which is 45GB), leaving only 15GB on C Drive, so this is no good.

Is there any way to around this? Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jaishankar
Member Avatar for pinch

Well it seems the solution is simple. Install the OS on the C: Drive, then go in and format D: Drive through windows, problem solved.

Member Avatar for jaishankar

Well it seems the solution is simple. Install the OS on the C: Drive, then go in and format D: Drive through windows, problem solved.

If you boot with win98 disk u can format all the drives in dos mode, but that not required as u can format and install OS in C drive and later format the remaining drive in Windows

Thats why windows is called user friendly OS

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