CANT FORMAT MY HARDISK!!!

[Simon]

I've tried to format my harddisk through command prompt and
right clicking on c: and then format - Won't let me as it
comes up with message "Windows cannot format this dive.
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." This is
weird because I'm not running any programs. Any help is
appreciated as I'm in a hurry to format my harddisk.

 

[Dave Patrick]

To wipe the drive, some ways include; boot a win98 startup disk, run fdisk
and delete all partition information found (as long as NTFS is primary). Or
boot the Windows 2000 CD-Rom or setup disks and when you get to the point,
delete the existing NTFS and or other partitions found, then abort the
install. Or use a utility named delpart. Once removed you can partition and
format the drive as you wish.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/reskit/nt31/i386/reskit.exe

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Simon.

No OS will obey the command to "Format YOURSELF!"

You remember, even in MS-DOS days, to format Drive C:, we had to boot from
Drive A: with a floppy. Now, to format Drive C:, we have to boot from some
source other than Drive C:.

We can boot from a DOS floppy, but the best way for current Windows versions
is to boot from the Win2K or WinXP CD-ROM. One of the first options is to
repartition and/or reformat the HD - including Drive C:. Accept this offer
and then either continue running Setup to install Windows, or abort after
the format to do anything else with the formatted drive.

RC

 

[Chris Henry]

Umm, considering you booted off your C: drive, and have
windows running from it, you can't format it because it's
in use... use a bootable media like a cd or boot disk...

-Chris