Delete Widows XP without reformat !!

I have one PC having XP loaded . is there any procedure to erase/delete entire hard disk without using xp cd.(means without booting and format)??.
If possible please help me.
thank you.

F

Plz give more detail you want to keep data in c drive????

A

^You want to delete XP, in XP(I mean booted in XP)?? :shock:

If you've Win7 boot cd, boot it and format the XP drive.
Else, try via Linux loaded into USB.

A

You have to boot "somewhere, other than XP" to be able to delete the hard disk.
If you dont want to boot in xp, try some other bootable disc(Live Linux distros).
If you dont want to boot using cd, create bootable pen drive.

Or,
Connect the hard disk in another PC and delete the partitions.

frankeric said:
Plz give more detail you want to keep data in c drive????

I want to delete C: Drive, where OS loaded with keeping other drive.

R

ramakanta said:
I want to delete C: Drive, where OS loaded with keeping other drive.

dude, if my understanding is right, you want to clean format your HDD (or one of your drives like C:\) without booting into that HDD.

So all you have to do is, connect this HDD as a secondary and boot windows (any version including win95/98) from another HDD (called primary boot device), right click on the drive from your secondary HDD (ie the HDD you want to format) and select format.

If you want to delete the partitions, you will have to use tools like partition magic or even win 7/8 embedded tool to shrink/expand (win 7/8 terms) the partitions.

PS:: I trust that you understand what I mean by partition, format, primary/secondary boot device and delete. In case you do not understand them, I advice you to check with our best friend (google) for more details.

S

if OP deletes the c: drive (/partition), don't the other partitions (if there are any) automatically get deleted alongwith?

sam1 said:
if OP deletes the c: drive (/partition), don't the other partitions (if there are any) automatically get deleted alongwith?

It won't.

S

sam1 said:
if OP deletes the c: drive (/partition), don't the other partitions (if there are any) automatically get deleted alongwith?

it will delete all other partitions if those are extended ones. If they are independent of the C drive, it wont get deleted.. it all depends on the OP's current partition layout.

W

^^wrong.an extended partition can be & will be subdivided into various logical partitions & deleting one drive does not affect other not to mention that people usually install os on a primary partition & not extended partition.

ramakanta said:
I want to delete C: Drive, where OS loaded with keeping other drive.

u must be having another OS installed in other partition..if yes then u can format C: drive by logging into that OS.
also u can format using BartPE Boot CD

H

You cannot delete Windows XP when you are booted in Windows XP. You can only delete OS from C: Drive when you are booted in some other OS.