formatting a HDD

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hello everyone;

i have a cradle (i believe that’s the name it has), with its own power supply, inside of which i can place a HDD, and via a USB cable connect to a PC.

then, the contents of the (so called) “satellite HDD” are seen as partitions when exploring the whole computer.

the HDD I want to process has two partitions which i couldn’t merge with Partition Magic (IMHO, a NICE program no longer current), therefore that is why I want to fully format it; and will reinstall an OS afterwards.

question (please forgive me if it is somehow silly):

in that formating, will I loose anything that could hamper the reinstallation of the OS?

the MBR it comes to my mind, but ignorance motivates this thread.

thanks in advance for all your assistance and replies.

Daniel Rozenberg

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You could try Partition Magic free

If you want to go the format / re-install option you won’t be able to do it with the disk in an external caddy / cradle. It needs to be the first disk on your internal disk controller to work properly. Then you boot the PC from the OS install CD and follow the prompts.
If you don’t have the OS install CD you should be able to create a recovery CD from the OS on the disk, but you have to boot from the disk to do it.

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul;

First, thanks for your reply.

Second, I apologize if I didn’t give enough info about my scenario; so here it goes:

I have two identical machines, both are HP dx5151sff that here (in Toronto , Canada), were sold for a smile and a song:

AMD 32 / 64 bit at 2.2 GHz, 40 GB HDD, FDD, CD-DVD R/W drive, with 8 USB ports (2 front, 6 rear), and 1Gb RAM.

All for CAD 50.00.

One of them is the workhorse [M1], where I’m typing this; it runs XP SP3, and I have (the old) Partition Magic Rev 8 [PM8] installed in it.

In the second machine [M2], I also installed PM8 and created a partition in which I installed W7 Home Premium. I played with W7, but finally decided to remain (at least for the time being), in XP (some time down the road will upgrade, but I want to be familiar with W7 (the one I have in my notebook, the third machine), before doing it)..

So, to remove / cancel /eliminate the W7 containing partition, I consulted Microsoft website, they advised to delete it, and so I did.

Trying, afterwards to MERGE the two partitions, I find that PM8 doesn’t do it, because XPSP3 partition has VERSION 3.1, while W7 partition has VERSION 0.0 (?), and PM8 requires both to be the same version.

Furthermore, the old PM8 doesn’t offer a way to correct versions.

That’s why I plan to iremove the HHD of M2, put it in the caddy, format it, remove it from the caddy and restore it in M2, which now I’ll boot up from the CD-DVD drive (previous F9 to change the BIOS sequence, if necessary) and then re-install XP.

Now, I don’t know if the MBR will be in the HDD of M2 after the format.

So, please let me repeat / reword my question:

IF, for any reason, the MBR ends damaged / erased / disappeared as consequence of the formatting, will the XP loading restore it?

TIA for your patience, understanding and assistance.

Daniel Rozenberg.

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Daniel,

Use PM8 to delete the Win 7 partition.
Then you should be able to extend the XP partition into the unused space.
However, first I would use EASYBCD to set the XP partition to the default boot partition. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks for your reply.

BTW, I downloaded EaseUS Partition Master, which applies to XP AND W7.

I will try it for the deletion of W7, and keep you posted.

Thnx again.

Daniel Rozenberg.

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Hi RetiredGeek;

I did as your instructions (only that I used EaseUS Partition Master instead of PM8), and everything worked WONDERS!.

Thank you very, very, very much for your help.

To you and Paul T, who also contributed to the solution of my problem.

Best regards,

Daniel Rozenberg.

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Daniel,

Glad to be of assistance. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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