How to format Win2K

[MangoDude]

How do you compleatly format the HD in Win2K. I want to return from NTFS to Fat32 and do a dual boot with Win98SE, and Win2K pro.

 

[hausdave]

put win2k cd-rom in drive and boot from it. You will eventually get to a screen that will allow you to remove partions. then cancel setup.

 

[bjc112]

how come you want to get rid of NTFS?..

are you going to dual boot both from NTFS? or just 2k?

Bryan

 

[MangoDude]

I am doing a dual boot with Win98SE and Win2K. NTFs wont handle both, you have to use Fat32

 

[shathal]

Personally, I would recommend that you at least install W2K on an NTFS partition. That way, W98 will be "blind" to your W2K install & not be able to mess it up (W98 can't "see" NTFS, either version).

This is just my "inter-windows" paranoia, but I find my system lives longer that way. I've had a "stupid" Windows (i.e.: Win 9X/ME) kill off a "smarter" Windows (NT , W2K) in the strangest ways. As such, the above "solution" has made my live a lot easier.

Data on Fat-32, W2K/NT on NTFS - everyone is happy .

Hope this helps .

 

[Kinesis]

Sorry folks I need to clarify something through this post. I too have a dual boot. Win98 (GAMES and MP3 Downloading), and W2k. Both are on FAT32 Partitions. I have a second Hard drive for data (IDE downloads and Storage. FAT 32 as well. I did the FAT32 thing for W2k cause it was my understanding NTFS won't be able to read FAT 32? Is that correct? I do know that FAT32 won't see an NTFS partition.

Just curious. Thanks

 

[bluegi]

to answer your question. use a dos boot disk and type fdisk to delete all partions then you need to create the number of partition you want. finally format each partition then install your os.

 

[Spearfodder]

Win2k will read Fat32 partitions just fine. 9x won't read ntfs partitions. If you dual boot, the boot partition must be a fat32 or fat partion (no reason not to make it fat32). Any partition that you want to be able to access from win9x has to be formated fat(32). Any partitions that you format (using win2k) in ntfs will only be visible and accessible from win2k.

What I did back when I dual booted was to make a smallish boot partition (say 4 gigs) in fat32, install win98 on it, and then run the win2k install, make another primary partition, format it ntfs and install 2k to it (Like was said earlier, win9x has a bad habit of breaking stuff if it can get to it) and then using disk admin (fdisk works fine too) to create aditinional fat32 partitions on the various drives for shared data storage.

 

[Kinesis]

Great. Ok, so just to be sure (although I will back up critical files first) I have a 10 GB drive partitioned with Win 98SE on C part of the drive and W2k on the D part of the drive. So I could now run the W2k Install CD and convert the FAT32 parition (D) that W2k is on to NTFS? Just like converting FAT to FAT32 in Windows 98 I would assume? or would it format that partition of my drive?

Thanks