Clean Format NTFS???

[Guest]

I just got WinXP Pro. I was going to do a clean install. I saw on here someone mention NTFS, so I did some homework to find out what it is. Now that I know, is there a way to reformat my Hard Drive and have it NTFS BEFORE I install XP on to it? Or do I have to reformat using FAT32, install XP, then have it convert to NTFS?
I was hoping to find a 'NTFS boot disk' on the web. I use a Win98 boot disk to format my drives, then use Maxtors' MAXBLAST to build a partition.(I have a Maxtor hard drive... don't remember which kind.)
Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[NickM]

Boot from the installation CD, go through the install process untill come to Create/Delete Partition option.
Do the Delete then, end exit.
Or continue with re-creating new partition(s) and Format,
or even continue with clean install!

 

[Guest]

I reformated my hard drive... 1 FAT32 partition. Had to install win98 first, then XP. While seting up XP I did have the option to convert to NTFS, which I did, overwritting the old windows program.

Interesting thing though... It now shows 2 hard drives instead of one. Is there a way to get just one NTFS partition?

 

[jasen]

If you simply converted it, you should have only one. Are they different sizes? or what? You shouldn't have 2 drives unless you partitioned that way.

 

[NickM]

Yeah, you're overlooked something.
The Install shows you what you going to have on every step of partitioning and formatting, always asking for the confirmation and with the option to check and go back.

In case you are still planning to have dual boot with Win98 and WinXP on NTFS, you must have two partitions as minimum, one of them normally C: as FAT for Win98.
Another reason to have as minimum as two partition (not necessarily though), normally it is better to have a separate partition for OS (WinXP) and separate partition(s)for applications and data.
I would rather repeat the partitioning if felt that I've got something unpredictable.