Formating (HELP)

[Patrick Sargent]

I have a second drive in my system, and I'm running Windows XP Home Edition
(NTFS). The problem is when I try to format it says it can't and that I
must quit all disk utilities in order to format. I have no idea what is
running and have tried almost everything! What do I need to kill in order
to format this drive?

 

[Patrick Sargent]

Yes, BIOS can see the drive. The drive works just fine, and I can use it
now, but for some reason there's 1gig that is used with no visible files and
no hidden files. So I figured I would format to clear off the garbage
whatever it may be. Well as it turns out it will not allow me to format the
drive. And I'm Trojan/Virus Free. This is strange to say the least.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

Was this hard drive part of an OEM setup such as HP, Compaq, etc? If yes,
that 1GB is likely the recovery partition and the OEM has probably set up
safeguards to prevent the user from accidentally formatting or deleting the
partition.

Many hard disk manufacturer's have free tool disks you can download from
there web sites and you might be able boot from one of those and use the
tools to remove that partition. You also might try booting with a 9x boot
disk and using fdisk to remove that partition, then see if you can get XP to
let you setup the drive as you wish. Don't use fdisk for that purpose if
you are planning on setting the second drive as NTFS as fdsisk can't do
that.

 

[bobbyjak]

Sounds like you have put the paging file or some other system file on the drive..Set folder
options to view all files, hidden and extensions..You should be able to see what's there now..

 

[Danny Kile]

Sounds to me like you may be formatting the wrong drive! Does the BIOS
see the new drive when you boot up?

Sound like maybe the drive has not been partitioned yet you may want to
check this. Check by looking at this location, you would Partition and
Format from this application. You must be log on with Administrator
Rights. Go here!

Start > Programs > Administration Tools > Computer Management > Disk
Management.


--
Danny Kile
Please reply to the Newsgroup ONLY

"Dogs come when they're called, CATS take a message and get back to
you." Mary Bly

 

[DCC]

Is system restore turned on for that drive?