Unable to format slave drive/vista

[Guest]

I have two 500gb WD drives, SATA.

Vista recognized both, but will not allow a clean format of the slave as
there is a windows driver in the HD from a previous install.

Apparently, VISTA will not allow this recognized drive to be reformatted..

I have tried to do access it through a DOS prompt with the VISTA boot DVD,
but when I request a format, it notes I must allow the drive to be removed
from the system.

I am somewhat reluctant to do this through a DOS prompt, as I may have
trouble getting it found in VISTA

Any suggestion on how to do the format in VISTA.

I have tried using Device manager in the Administrator mode, without success.

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Use Administrative Tools>Computer Management and Disk Management to format the
drive.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I already tried that.

The system won't allow a format thru administrative tools as there is a
Windows file on the disc that Vista will not allow to be removed.

How do I get this disc formatted.

I can't remove the file, as it appear to be a system file, even though I
don't use the file.

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Have you right clicked on the drive in Disk Manager and on the security tab
taking ownership/permissions for your account and then trying to delete the file
and formatting?

 

[andy]

Sounds like there's a system, boot, or page partition for the Vista
installation that is currently running on the drive you're trying to
format. Look at the status of the partitions on the drive in Disk
Management.