Erase a partition?

Win XP Home Edition: my hard drive is partitioned (C:\ for operating stuff; D:\ for files).

Apparently something has gone amiss with the WinXP; attempting to use the Repair function from the CD always comes to a dead-end when it asks for the administrator password; I am the sole user of the PC and have set up the account reflecting that I am the administrator -- but the Repair function will not accept my password.

Attempting to reload Win XP on the C:\ partition comes up with a disk error message -- typically useless, since it gives no clue whatever how/what/where to find a solution to that message.

When going through the reload Win XP route, it asks if I want to delete/erase that partition. To me that means there would be no remaining C:\ partition available when I attempted to load Win XP again but that my D:\ partition would remain intact. [True / false?]

Q: Is there a way to DELETE THE CONTENTS of the C:\ partition without removing the partition; meaning, I would then have a clean partition into which to load Win XP.

Thanks.

 

when you install windows the setup window will show all current partitions, c: will be disc 0, you can choose to erase the c; partition, and leave the d; partition.

just be sure which partition you are highlighting to erase

here are some pics of what the screens will look like:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxpclean1.htm
With pictures of clean install
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you cannot repair a windows installation of sp3 if the cd is a sp2,

if you are entering the R of setup that is the recovery console and the administrative password is not the same as the password for the recovery console, if you did not set up an admin password, then you should just be able to press enter to get by this question.

 

Any time I have installed or re-installed XP, I am given the option of deleting a partition, which I sometimes do. But then I re-establish the deleted partition (usually the C:\drive partition), and carry on with the install, telling the install program to do a full format of the partition. And I've never had a problem with an install doing this.

 

in win xp during installation only the creation and deletion of partition will be accessed upto my knowledge!

 

May I suggest you don't try playing with partition?

Make one and put everything onto that!