Installing fresh XP - need help

[QbA]

I want to install a fresh copy of XP. Now I have two partitions C (system) and E (other) => made with partition magic.

I have a question - if I will format C:\ and install fresh XP - am I going to be able to use the data on the E drive without installing partition magic.

Thanks.

[jdhurst]

If you install with your own XP, you can constrain it to the one partition. If I were doing it, I would save my other partition's data somewhere, re-image the Laptop with F11 or with CD's, get XP running well (all driver, application and Windows updates including SP2), then use Partition Magic to create the partition I wanted and restore the data. That way you have the IBM tools loaded which are, for the most part, useful tools.
... JD Hurst