I have Windows Professional XP Version 5.1 Service Pack 2.

I just loaded it onto a computer that has a 30 GB hard drive.

Before I began the disk was half-full. It already had Windows XP installed on it. And god knows what else.

In any case, I went for a whole new installation and told it to write over the old system. I figured that it would just delete everything and start over. It does seem to have done that because there are no other programs or data files available anymore.

HOWEVER,…. It’s using about the same amount of disk space as before (13.4 GB to be exact). Just for Windows XP?

Does that sounds right??? Seems like an awful lot of space to me.

I’m thinking about scraping the system again and reformatting the disk first and then reinstalling. Will that make a difference? Or does Windows Professional XP just take up 13.4 GB! The installation is only a ONE CD. Where’s it getting 13.4 GB from?

I’m thinking that reformatting the disk and reinstalling it might change that?

What do you think?

does the HD have more than one partition?it might have set it up on a 2nd partition and didn't erase the original one.i always just set it to use the full HD as 1 partition so i have plenty of room and plus i don't use a 2nd OS on the same drive

My computer uses 3.9 GB of space on XP. You might want to use your program manager to clean up. If nothing works and you have an XP disk, you can re-format your drive and re-install XP.

I have a question. I have a Compaq Presario that is running a Windows ME program. If I reformat, can I replace the current ME progrm with Windows XP?

actionguy,as long as you have enough memory to run it,you can.XP requires 256 meg of memory so as long as you have atleast that much,go for it

I’ve done these things a billion times on desktop PCs that have floppies using FDISK.

But this is a notebook and has no floppy. All I have is the Windows XP CD ROM installation disk.

I’m looking at Computer Management window now.

It says I have 3 partitions.

One is a 16 MB FAT partition with only 8MB in use. I have no clue what that’s for.
One is 2.2 GB with FAT32 only 11% free. I have no clue what that’s for.

Neither of those partitions have drive letters.

Finally I have he C: partition in NTFS with 25.7 GB only 50% free.

I’d be happy with just reformatting the C: Partition and trying to reinstall.

But how do I do that?

Can I just use the dos prompt to reformat? Then the system will crash after the reformat because there no more OS. Then I just start over with the install CD again?

ok,put the disk in and select New Install,once it begins and does it's first reboot,you should see a screen that asks which partition you want to install it on but you should also have the option of deleting the partitions that you see.delete all partitions and you should see the unused space on your HD.select it to create a new partition and try using all but 1 or 2 gig of your HD for your partition.you can choose to make it a NTFS or FAT32 partition,it's up to you but i think NTFS is better.once done it should begin to reformat your HD and then the installation should begin.


hope that helps

Ok, I didn't realize the install disk basically has FDISK built into it. I've deleted all partitions and made just one big one. I'm currently formatting it in NTFS.

The install process will talk a few hours probably. Then I'll report back here to let everyone know whether it made any difference in free disk space.

I hope it does, otherwise it was all all for naught. I already had it loaded on once.

it should only take about 45 minutes to an hour for the install and maybe 30-45 minutes for the reformat,unless you have ALOT of stuff on your HD but my HD is an 80 gig and having only 1 gig unused it still only to about 45 minutes or less to reformat it

All done!

It was WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!

Now I have 27.9 GB free and the OS only takes up 1.48 GB.

This is nice! It feels like a new computer now.

Don’t EVER load a new OS without reformatting!

hehe,yeah i always reformat before installing or reinstalling an OS because without reformatting,it doesn't get rid of everything

Abracadabra,

I got to this thread late, but I have a suggestion. Setup your pagefile to be a fixed size. Take your amount of RAM and multiply that by 2. The number you get should be the MIN and MAX size of your page file. This will prevent fragmentation from forming due to a ever-changing pagefile.

to action guy ,,yes you can replace but itthe xp disc has to be a full install disc not an upgrade windows me is another mircosoft joke get xp in there as soon as possible