pakadoodledo(remove)

A virus destroyed files. Unable to get booted up. No restore disk. I
installed another hard disk from old computer and have an operating system.
It shows original hard drive as drive "D" shich has 2 partitions Disk #1
partition #0 3.99 GB & Disk #1 partition #1 7.84 GB with NT file system. I
can only get in to format the first partion. How do I get rid of the
partitions and format the whole drive? Thanks.

dave patrick

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows NT install CD-Rom or setup
disks. When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other
partitions found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install, then
again restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid unexpected
drive letter assignments with your new install.

Depending on your drive's geometry Windows NT supports a system partition
(the first primary active partition and where the files required to start
the OS reside (boot sector)) limited to 7.8gB NTFS or 4gB Fat16, while the
boot partition (where the OS is installed) is not limited in size. You wont
be able to create a system partition greater than 4gB with Windows NT Setup;
if you need a system partition 4gB - 7.8 gB, you'll need to use Partition
Magic or use another NT machine to create the first primary active
partition. The system and boot partition can be the same partition.

If you created one large system/ boot partition > 7.8 gB and installed the
OS, it may work, but the problem is if you defragment the drive or service
pack the install and the files ntdetect.com, ntldr, boot.ini, and
ntbootdd.sys end up being relocated to a point beyond the 7.8 gB barrier,
then the bootstrap process wont be able to find them and the OS wont start.

Once the OS is installed you can use Disk Administrator to partition and
format the rest of your drive. You'll need atapi.sys from SP4 or later for
Windows NT to be able to recognize a drive larger than ~ 8 gB. See the first
article for the link and instructions.

Installing Windows NT on a Large IDE Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q197667

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt...tapi/atapi.exe

Windows NT 4.0 Supports Maximum of 7.8-GB System Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q224526

Boot Partition Created During Setup Limited to 4 Gigabytes
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q119497

Windows NT Partitioning Rules During Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q138364


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

| installed another hard disk from old computer and have an operating
system.
| It shows original hard drive as drive "D" shich has 2 partitions Disk #1
| partition #0 3.99 GB & Disk #1 partition #1 7.84 GB with NT file system.
I
| can only get in to format the first partion. How do I get rid of the
| partitions and format the whole drive? Thanks.