Partioning

Hello,

I'm a total novice looking for some advice. I have a number of problems with XP - primarily, I can't set up a network and I can't use an antiviras program (I had Norton but was unable to run updates. I now can't access Norton or any other vendors' tool. A recent scan showed I have 47 viruses - but I can't get at any tool to get rid of them!)

So, I'm looking to start afresh and reinstall XP. But I have a load of music files which I can't transfer to another PC (can't network at all). Someone has sugested partioning the hard drive and storing these files that way.

Can I still do a hard-reinstall of XP this way? How does partitioning work? Is there a chance my viral problems will remain on the new partition? How easy/safe is it to access my files? What partitioning programs are there - are any of them free?

Can someone explain the process to me in basic terms? Thanks for your patience!

 

afiak ... u need a third party program like partition magic to do so, which costs money

it might be easier to back things up to a CD writer drive

 

Thanks, Pyrate.

I would but there are 3,000 songs - which I think would be about 50 CDs?

I'd rather buy the software. If that'll let me hard reinstall and be virus free?

 

Just a suggestion:
If you have an extra HardDrive then you could connect that as Slave then partition(fdisk) and format it using the Disk Management console of the current XP, then transfer whatever you want backed up to the second drive.

If you decide to follow this path, please read this as well:

START > RUN > compmgmt.msc > OK

On the left, click on Disk Management, the newly connected drive should be visible you could right-click on it then choose 'create partition' BUT make sure to create the new partition as 'Primary' not 'Logical/Extended', then format it using either FAT32 (if you think you might have to transfer these files to a Windows98/Me machine as well) or NTFS.

For a lesser chance of getting the new drive infected and/or the overall operation getting effected, after you are done with the above you could boot in safe mode to trasfer the files.


Second alternative: get a USB Flash Drive. I just got a 512MB Verbatim for $39.99 (minus $15 rebate) from MicroCenter) and transfer the files in installments.

Third alternative: take this infected drive out and connect it to another system and boot in the safe mode and transfer the files (but there is a risk of transferring infected files as well).