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Uninstall XP

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MkP

Technical User
Joined
Nov 16, 2001
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Location
US
I have upgraded from Windows 2000 Professional to XP. I now want to wipe out my hard drive and do a clean install of 2000 Professional. I am studing to be an MCSE and need to work with W2k Professional and Advanced Server. I thought I could look at XP and then uninstall it to go back to W2K. When I run the FORMAT C: command at the command prompt, it tells me the the volume is in use and the format cannot be done. Does anyone have any ideas?
 
You'll have to boot from a floppy to "format c:"
 
I want to reformat but XP has a problem reading from my floppy. There was no problem with the floppy when I was using Windows 98. This is the second time I have installed XP with no response from the floppy, except this time I didn't upgrade.
 
Thanks for the reply dave31175. I tried to run Format C: from both a Windows 95 and Windows 98 boot disk, but an error came up stating that the MS-DOS was not compatable. Any ideas?
 
MkP, is your C: drive NTFS? I believe that would cause a compatibility error as neither win95 nor win98 will read/access an NTFS formatted drive.

Your best bet might be to run FDISK after booting to your win98 boot floppy. This page ( seems to have good documentation for using FDISK if you're not familiar with it. Or better yet, get yourself a copy of Partition Magic if you're in a position to do so.
 
Yes Dave, my drive is formatted in NTFS. I forgot about compatability problems with FAT and FAT32. I will use your advice and thanks again for the help!
 
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