I have a single hard drive which I used Partition Manager on, creating a new D drive on which I have installed a fresh XP and it is working a lot nicer than the old set.

On startup if offers the two installations to boot from.

Can I format my original C partition without losing the boot "sector" or whatever it is these days?

Can I later remove the C partition or will D then become C and confuse everything?

In essence I just want to tidy it all up a bit.

 

It would be easier to use some software like the one you bought to sort it out. Certainly can be done, but don't take the task lightly.

 

If u format c:\ u will erase the boot.ini which is the loader to your OS on d:\ So you wouldnt be able to boot into XP on d:\

What would work is if u delete everything on c:\ except for all the files in the root of c:\ including the hidden/system files.

And then either mod the boot.ini so it only gives u the one choice to boot into XP off d:\ In that case you wont see the boot loader menu at startup.

Or you can achieve the same as above;

From the Control Panel

System/Advanced/Startup n Recovery

Set the Default operating system to XP on your d:\ drive.

Uncheck 'Display List of Operating systems' Or leave it checked until you know you have selected the right install of XP

Ideally u should have your clean XP on c:\ but to do that without reinstalling is a little more involved.