Formatting C:\

[AAC]

Before I return a PC to my employer I want to format the
C: drive. I get a message:

"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk
utilities or other programs that are using this drive,
and make sure that no window is displaying the contents
of the drive. Then try formatting again."

There are no apps in Task Manager. These are the
processes listed:
System Idle Process
System
SMSS.EXE
CSRSS.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
LSASS.EXE
TASKMGR.EXE
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
realsched.exe
vptray.exe
explorer.exe

I shut down every service I could but I haven't had any
luck. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[me]

you cannot format c when windows is running

 

[AA]

Justin,

Many thanks.

-----Original Message-----
I would suggest using a "kill disk" approach that i use, you can get the
disks that write to every sector on the drive cleaning the whole drive.

Or

Use a startup disk from an OS (like dos) and format the drive using that
approach.
You cannot format the the primary drive of the OS that you are using (well,
you could with some of the older ones, but not the new ones.)

Hope this helps.
Justin


.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, AAC.

NO operating system will format its own system drive. Even in MS-DOS, we
had to boot from Drive A: to format Drive C:.

To format Drive C:, you can boot from the Win2K CD-ROM, as though you were
planning to reinstall Win2K, and accept its invitation to repartition and/or
reformat the HD.

You know, of course, that simply reformatting a drive will not completely
eliminate its contents. A sophisticated computer geek with the right
utility program can still read all or most of it. Depending on how secure
you want the erasure to be, you can find various disk "wiping" programs.
But if security is not a consideration, then a simple reformat should make
the disk ready for your employer to reuse.

RC