Windows XP Clean Install

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Saruman

Pretty much...

Oh whats the hidden partition? Is it like an image of all the Dell stuff so you can install an image so no messing with drivers etc? If your going to get rid of all the dell stuff you can probably delete the partition.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

zAbbo

The dell partition probably has all your drivers there, so make sure you have a backup of your drivers or the installation files of latest ones, then its just a simple case of setting the first boot device to the CDROM, then let the WinXp setup do its stuff, delete the existing partitions and make one primary one(usally all available space on the HDD)

Also format that newly made partition as NTFS(i don`t think theres any other option)

Frank Grimes

The partition was probably created by the Dell image/restore CD.
Get Partition Magic (even the demo) and it'll tell you what the file system is, it'll probably say Ghost or something to that effect.

And bazH, XP can be installed on FAT32 or NTFS.

zAbbo

From a clean install i think XP only offers to format in NTFS, same as 2ksp2

Frank Grimes

Any time I've installed it, I got the option to format as FAT32.

zAbbo

possibly because you are reformating a FAT32 partition, i`m using Xp Pro and have used 2ksp2 installs on a blank drive and haven`t seen the FAT32 option, the hidden partition is prolly FAT32 so the option to format as FAT32 will be visible.

Frank Grimes

I was installing on unpartitioned space.

zAbbo

with xp pro?

also on unpartitioned space, ahh maybe because i created a partiton in XP setup was the fact that it was only letting me format it as NTFS.