best way to reinstall windows xp in dual boot configuration safely

ok....as per my previous post....my windows xp partition wont recognize the partition i have set up to be the major data sharing partition on my hard drive after i did some partitioning operations with partition magic.

so...im thinking of reinstalling windows xp and hopefully the new install will see this partition......as my windows 2000 install has no problem with it.

now the question.

do i use the built in windows xp install partitioning to just reformat the drive and go?  or are there other steps i should take to insure success?

thoughts and comments appreciated!

thanks

thinking some more and reading my post again....i guess my real question is how do i clean all the goop (for lack of a better term)  that all the safety features of xp have written to the other partitions of my drive....especially the one that has all the data on it?  

i think i have been pretty conciencious about seperating data and programs from the o/s partitions......but there is still a lot of stuff in there that could be causing my particular problem....ie found.xxx folders [these are from chkdisk?} and long binary or hex folder names which i assume are folders that 2000 and xp use to verify a drive

i have a separate partition for windows 2000 o/s, windows 2000 programs{and swap file} windows xp, windows xp programs........and then my data partition (w/label of f which my xp install refuses to recognize after i used pm to make more space on it

i know more knowledge make the solution more simple.....so please give it to me  lol


all input appreciated!


thanks in advance

world peace!

I prefer to unplug the drives I am not installing on to so that windows doesn't try and be extra clever and pick details up from other drives/partitions, it also makes each drive bootable, so if for any reason you remove a drive the other/s will still be usuable.

Then I run BOOTCFG and set the dual boot up myself, I have 6 hard drives with 4 versions of windows on. It seems to work so I'm sticking with it.

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Johnodq
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