Formating a second HDD

[Mike Brown]

I know I should know this but brain fade rules !!!

I have just fitted a second HDD to the magic box. It's an old 60gb
one that was still intact and had XP installed on it.

What I would like to do is to format it completley, remove the 8mb
patition etc andf have a completley clean drive for storage.

I can't format it from 'My Computer' - it says there are files in use
by the OS.

I have deleted as much as I can from the drive - including a few
'hidden folders' and all that remains in 'RECYCLERS' which I presume
is the folder stopping me formatting.

Please - help an old man - how do I format and clean this HDD.

Ta

Mike

 

[DaViD]

disconnect the drive reboot...if works the OS is not using the second drive.
using the jumper set it as the slave.
reboot and format.

 

[Alias]

Go to the HD's manufacturer's web site and download the diskette/floppie(s)
and use them to format and partition the drive.

Alias

:I know I should know this but brain fade rules !!!
:
: I have just fitted a second HDD to the magic box. It's an old 60gb
: one that was still intact and had XP installed on it.
:
: What I would like to do is to format it completley, remove the 8mb
: patition etc andf have a completley clean drive for storage.
:
: I can't format it from 'My Computer' - it says there are files in use
: by the OS.
:
: I have deleted as much as I can from the drive - including a few
: 'hidden folders' and all that remains in 'RECYCLERS' which I presume
: is the folder stopping me formatting.
:
: Please - help an old man - how do I format and clean this HDD.
:
: Ta
:
: Mike

 

[ByTor]

I know I should know this but brain fade rules !!!

I have just fitted a second HDD to the magic box. It's an old 60gb
one that was still intact and had XP installed on it.

What I would like to do is to format it completley, remove the 8mb
patition etc andf have a completley clean drive for storage.

I can't format it from 'My Computer' - it says there are files in use
by the OS.

I have deleted as much as I can from the drive - including a few
'hidden folders' and all that remains in 'RECYCLERS' which I presume
is the folder stopping me formatting.

Please - help an old man - how do I format and clean this HDD.

Ta

Mike

Use a Win98 boot disk.........

http://www.bootdisk.com/

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/hdd.txt (How To)
Look furthur down under:
3. PARTITIONING YOUR HARD DRIVE

 

[Mike Brown]

disconnect the drive reboot...if works the OS is not using the second drive.
using the jumper set it as the slave.
reboot and format.

Done .... the OS is not using the 2nd drive at all (that I can see)
apart from the 'RECYLERS' as mentioned. Every thing works fine ...
it's just that I can't format the drive 'cos windows says


"WINDOWS CANNOT FORMAT THIS DRIVE. QUIT ANY DISC UTILITIES OR OTHER
PROGRAMMES THAT ARE USING THIS DRIVE AND MAKE SURE THAT NO WINDOW IS
DISPLAYING THE CONTENTS OF THIS DRIVE. THEN TRY FORMATTING AGAIN"


I'll try the Maxtor site and look at the downloads there.


Mike

 

[Alias]

: On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 12:02:07 -0000, "DaViD" <[email protected]>
: wrote:
:
: >disconnect the drive reboot...if works the OS is not using the second
drive.
: >using the jumper set it as the slave.
: >reboot and format.
:
: Done .... the OS is not using the 2nd drive at all (that I can see)
: apart from the 'RECYLERS' as mentioned. Every thing works fine ...
: it's just that I can't format the drive 'cos windows says
:
:
: "WINDOWS CANNOT FORMAT THIS DRIVE. QUIT ANY DISC UTILITIES OR OTHER
: PROGRAMMES THAT ARE USING THIS DRIVE AND MAKE SURE THAT NO WINDOW IS
: DISPLAYING THE CONTENTS OF THIS DRIVE. THEN TRY FORMATTING AGAIN"
:
:
: I'll try the Maxtor site and look at the downloads there.
:
:
: Mike

Just download the utility and copy it to a floppy. Insert the floppy with
both hard drives in the box, boot up and it's self explanatory.

Alias

 

[sandman112]

couple of things you could try ......

right click your recycle bin, go to properties, then select 'configure
drives independantly' then set the new drive to 0% this should enable you to
delete the recycler folder on there ..... then you should be able to format
the drive from windows if you really want to

but your best option would be to boot from your winXP cd and go to recovery
console, once in there select d:/ drive and then use the format comand from
there "format d:" you can also use diskpart from there to creat partitions
on the drive if you want .....

at least thats the first couple of things i would try

 

[Alex Nichol]

I know I should know this but brain fade rules !!!

I have just fitted a second HDD to the magic box. It's an old 60gb
one that was still intact and had XP installed on it.

What I would like to do is to format it completley, remove the 8mb
patition etc andf have a completley clean drive for storage.

Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management, select Disk
Management and look lower right for the graphic of the drive.

You can then r-click in an existing partition and delete, once it is all
'Unallocated space' r-click in that and 'Create Partition', following
through to format it

 

[Mike Brown]

Many thanks to all. It now works.
I downloaded the software from Maxtor and then used the disc
management systems.
Thanks again.

 

[Alias]

: Many thanks to all. It now works.
: I downloaded the software from Maxtor and then used the disc
: management systems.
: Thanks again.

Great utility, yes?

Alias
:
: On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 11:46:22 GMT, Mike Brown
:
: >I know I should know this but brain fade rules !!!
: >
: >I have just fitted a second HDD to the magic box. It's an old 60gb
: >one that was still intact and had XP installed on it.
: >
: >What I would like to do is to format it completley, remove the 8mb
: >patition etc andf have a completley clean drive for storage.
: >
: >I can't format it from 'My Computer' - it says there are files in use
: >by the OS.
: >
: >I have deleted as much as I can from the drive - including a few
: >'hidden folders' and all that remains in 'RECYCLERS' which I presume
: >is the folder stopping me formatting.
: >
: >Please - help an old man - how do I format and clean this HDD.
: >
: >Ta
: >
: >Mike
: