You can use the disc/media that they provide you to format the disk, but you will end up with an un-alligned hard disk, which is not ideal for audio and video streaming..


The step that you would want to do, Idealy; AFTER you have scanned and backup your data.. Sorry when I said "DO THIS NOW" and before that post, I said to delete the partition and didn't mention "AFTER YOU BACKUP" but I'm pretty sure that's a given.. you don't want to delete your drive or format your drive till after you have backed up your data..


I think ANY vista with disk management/ any windows 7 with disk management, as long as they are clean/ virus free.. The reason I say any vista or 7 OS installed PC to do the formatting is that windows xp cannot align the partition, and Vista/windows 7 do it automatically, without anty special commands......

You need to remove the partition information and then create a new partition in vista or windows 7 to create an alligned partition.. Or with the use of a vista repair/recovery boot CD, a command prompt and some command lines, using DISKPAR "need more instructions for that"..

Whatever is easier for you, or if you don't worry about disk allignment, just use the included media to prep your disk.. Most people won't notice the difference in alignment in day to day use of their PC, but since you mention you do streaming audio/video.. I figured you should do it..

When you format the new partition, uncheck perform quick format. If you used a vista or 7 computer to allign the partition, do not re-format the partition when you re-install windows xp. "choose the partition that you created in the other OS, but do not change the filesystem or reformat.. The option durring windows text mode setup is "install windows on "something something" and leave existing filesystem" or something like that. the other options are format ntfs =full format/quick format.. use full format from the installation media if you do not do the disk allignment.