how do i format c drive?

[mike]

hi.

i have a partitioned hard drive with windows 2000 on the c
drive. want to format the drive and re-install clean.
but i can not do this from a command prompt. format is
not allowed while files are in use. it won't boot into a
command prompt from the boot disks or the windows
installation cd without activating windows 2000 either.

can anybody tell me how to format the c drive for a clean
re-install of windows 2000?

thank you for whatever help.

mike

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Boot from your Win2000 CD, then allow the disk to be
formatted when prompted.

 

[AL]

One time I was able to do this on a computer containing
2000 server. I booted from the CD and ran the recovery
console. At the c:\winnnt> prompt I typed format c: and it
worked. Then I rebooted with the XP cd in the cd-rom drive
and installed it. If that doesn't work, you would probably
have to boot using 2000 startup disks and format from some
sort of pseudo DOS prompt, which I believe they create.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Why take the long way via the Recovery Console, or via a
Win98 boot disk, when the installation process will do it
directly?