On 13 Mar, 17:21, "Mark" <markantis...@orange.fr> wrote:
> How can it be that after formatting a disk during a Win XP install that,
> after the install, two versions of windows are proposed in the startup menu?
> On Partition 1 and partition 2? Does this mean that a format is not
> complete? Does it imply that the Master Boot Record has not been formatted?
> If so, problems with MBR viruses cannot be resolved with a Windows XP
> install.
>
> Found a formatting tool for Maxtor drives: called Powermax v4.23
> (13/03/2007) Never tried using this a s a solution for this problem, but it
> seems that a windows install format does not remove the master boot record

reading a few of your posts, it's clear that you missed the point made
by the first person that replied. I'll expand on it.. Though I may
make mistakes in the process

There is no such thing as formatting a disk
(there may be wiping a disk, writing zeros all over it, but that's not
formatting)

Formatting formats a partition.

If somebody stupidly/misleadingly says format a disk, they probably
mean the disk has one partition, format it.

Chances are that when you had windows xp and then went ahead and
installed windows xp again, it created a new partition, formatted
that, and put windows on there. As oppose to removing windows
beforehand.

I don't know much about the MBR. But from what I understand,
The MBR sits outside the partitions. And It doesn't even know if a
partition is FAT32 or NTFS. One formats partitions. So the MBR won't
get wiped from formatting [a partition].

So, for example, the win98 command fdisk /mbr works on a drive with
win xp, and win xp recovery console command FIXMBR works on a drive
with win98 . The difference between the 2 commands is a slight
technicality discussed somewhere on usenet. I don't think it's OS
related.

The DOS Format command was e.g. format c: So the format command took
a so-called "Drive" as a paramater. But C is really a partition, not a
hard drive. When DOS "help" says Drive I guess it means partition. In
win xp disk management, the drive is called a disk.
The word drive might actually be a bit misleading - 'cos 2 possible
definitions. (is it a partition as DOS can use the term, or is it a
hard drive).