One Partition Format .. HOW ?

[random_x]

Hi all ..

I have a Toshiba M30 Laptop .. and i want to Format ONLY one of its HD partitions .

I tried to do so using its recovery CD ..

the peroblem is that the recovery CD ( according to my little experiance) always recovers the laptop to its factory status
which mean that I wil lose all of my stored data
on the partition D and the partition D it self will disappear
.. because when i bought the laptop it was
NOT partitioned (I made the partitions later) ...

the question now is : How can i format the partition C only
with out deleting partition D ??

thanks in advance .

NOTE: the recovery CD provides tow Recovery options ..
1st one : normal recovery ..
2nd one: Expert recovey ..

But I dont know exactly what to do with each option to
format one partition ...

[ECA]

open My computer..
Right click the partition you wish, select Format.

As to recovery, this I can not say.
I would say to make an emergency boot disk, which windows should do.
Not sure where they put it.
Do you have a different Disk besides the recovery disk? Odds say it wont work right as an install disk.

[Ioman]

My guess is that you will not be able to do this using the recovery CD that came with your system. What I would do is use the recovery CD and do a clean install of your system, then use a program like partition magic to create a second partition, in this case "D" from there.

The only other way is to do a clean install of Windows without using the recovery CD and then choosing your partitions that way.

[random_x]

thank you ..
***************
Dear ECA :
* Its impossible to format a partition carries the OS while its running ..
* I dont have any other CD's beside the recovery CD :( ..
**************
Dear : Ioman
it is a good guess ..but it will cause deletion for the d partition
which I want to avoid .. :)

I will try to do a clean install of Windows without using the recovery CD and then choosing your partitions that way.

thanx again ..

[Ioman]

Let us know how it goes.

[jfila]

why do you want to keep D:?
How much data is on D:?
Are you planning on going to a dual-boot system?
What is the size of your hard drive?

[random_x]

thank you for interest ..

*I want to keep D bacause it conatains too much files
(about 10 GB )

*I'm not planning on going to a dualboot system .

*My HD Capacity is about : 40 GB

[dang]

how do you plan on re-installing your os after formatting c? If you arent using your system restore cd that came with your computer, and instead have a store bought version of XP or whatever, then boot up off that cd. During install, you should be able to re-format the c drive and then install onto it.

[jfila]

HMM - yes it's unfortunate that they do it that way. I just bought a Compaq laptop today and the first thing I did was wipe out the default system and install clean so there wasn't all the pre-loaded crap on it. Kudos to Compaq for including the OS on a separate CD - a regular XP pro install.

The routine of the restore CD must be to delete all partitions and install clean.

There must be some directions on the web for that "Expert" recovery. Have you checked with Toshiba's support? Hopefully something in expert restore allows you to select to keep the partition.

[ECA]

If you want to do it, Make a boot disk with basic DOS/windows commands on it... not sure where XP put them, may still be on CD.
ALSO, look on the CD dir, I had one that had MANY sartup's and each different.
Another way is if you can get into Dos command to the CD...
Type the "install command" with "/?" There may be options.

[ECA]

PS, all its doing is an FDISK, command, and then formating the whole thing.

[Archon]

I'd just boot up with the windows disc.. do you have one? or make some windows XP boot disks, and then just format C: to NTFS, and do a new install

[ECA]

Originally posted by Archon
I'd just boot up with the windows disc.. do you have one? or make some windows XP boot disks, and then just format C: to NTFS, and do a new install

Archon,
He only has the RECOVERY disk so far...Auto install and format.
Im hoping there is a second install command on the disk beside the AUTO INSTALL(there should be) or that theres a option not to auto FDISK.

[gr00vy0ne]

Well, here's what I would do...and it assumes you have a place to back up your data to at least once.

I would first backup your data files to another location and let the recovery CD do it's default refresh of your system. There doesn't seem to be much way around this since the recovery CD doesn't seem to have a lot of options.

Once the system is recovered and your new partitions are set, I would use Acronis' TrueImage backup program to take a snapshot of your C:\ drive (which would be your boot drive with all of the applications installed). I would then keep this snapshot (whether it be a burned DVD or CDs or a hard disk image) in a safe place. You can now restore all of tour original data files back to the D: partition.

Now, let's say your system starts acting funny or you simply want a "refreshed" setup. Instead of using the original recovery CDs to restore, you use the Acronis TrueImage program instead to restore your configuration. The program will leave your other partitions alone and get you back up and running a lot faster than the CDs. The only thing you'll need to do is reinstall any new apps you installed since the original snapshot. If you have spare external space, you can store multiple snapshots taken at different periods (i.e. every time you install a new program or once you've pointed all your programs to point to D:\ to look for data files) and that will speed up your recovery process.

I do this on nearly all my systems. I separate the data from the system and application files. I purposely setup clean installations with all my usual apps installed and take a snapshot. I recently accidentally hosed my system when messing around with registry entries. No problem, I simply restored the entire OS/Apps in about 8 minutes (from a 1 week old backup) and my data was left alone on the other partition. I was up and running with a working system within 10 minutes.

[ECA]

One Q:

Why do you wish to kill your OS partition??
Just to clean up?
Something flaky?

You will have to reinstall everything... Last time I did that, it took 1 week even with Highspeed access to get all the updates.

[Gatorhardware]

If you have a floppy drive make a 98 boot disk if you can or have a friend do it for you. Copy the files format.com and fdisk.com on it. Boot the laptop with the floopy and type format c:

You should be able to format the c drive and keep d just fine. The use your restore disk and it should ask you which drive you want it on.