I'll give you a bit of background on my problem first:

Windows XP install got corrupted and I could not repair it so I re-installed XP on another partition on my HD and now this install is working fine. My question is can I now format the partition my old corrupt XP is on without any problems ( it is not dual boot and boots straight into the new XP install)?

Thanks

corrupt XP is on drive E:
working XP is on drive D:

fyall

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I'd say *it depends*--depends on what you want to end up with.

You obviously do not have your WinXP installed with the classic C:\ drive arrangement for either of your WinXP installs:

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So, if you're okay with the current drive letter assignments, then probably the current working XP is okay with it.

The issue of installing your OS on a different partition than the *default* is you now have to keep track of what you are doing and translate OS issues from the *default* step-by-step instructions to the arrangement you have set up.

You say:

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So, where is the boot partition?  Is it the C:\ partition?  (It's where the active boot.ini file, ntldr, & NTDETECT.COM--among others--are located.)

What is the content of the *boot.ini* file--if it lists only the one working WinXP, and there are no references to the corrupt WinXP, and you have no need for any of the files on the corrupt WinXP's partition--then you probably can re-format over it.

But, I'd have a good whole drive image to restore before I proceed so I could recover if some miscalculation has occurred  !

fyall

Open Window Explorer and do a Search--should show up in the results--note--tell Search to look in all local hard drives.

If you have not set Windows Explorer folder options to show all files, you can do the following--open Windows Explorer, select menu item *Tools/Folder Options...*:



Once in *Folder Options*, click on the *View* tab, make your settings like this:



I click on *Apply to All Folders*, and if needed *Apply*, and finally *OK*.  Now, all files should be visible when using Windows Explorer.


If more than one *boot.ini* file shows up in the search, then more detective work will be needed to see which one is the *active* boot.ini file.

fyall

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What are the file's names--why do you say they are *backup files*?

What drive letter are they located on?

Is there the *ntldr* and *ntdetect.com* files on the same drive as one of the above *boot.ini* files?

You can also find out which drive has your boot files by using Disk Management.  From the conrtol panel, click on "Administrative Options" and then "Computer Mangement."  In the left window pane, click on "Disk Management".  It should have a list of all  your hard drives and all the partitions on them.  It will also put something like "(boot)" and "(system)" next to two of the drives.  If you only have one that says "(system)" then that is the one with the boot files on it. 

You can also use the Disk Management tool to delete and format any partitions that you find are safe to delete.  Right click on any partition and choose "Create Partition."   That will start an easy wizard that will format a drive.

fyall

Have you found the boot files on C:\?

Have you reviewed the contents of the boot.ini file on C:\?

the strange thing is there are no files on c: and explorer only finds the two boot.ini backup files as I explained above so I still cannot find the actual boot.ini file