formating windows xp

[DyingSlow]

hi,i tried to format my windows xp working computer,but
it always fail
saying that "the volume is used by another process"
then it asks me if i want to "close the volume"
i answer"y"
then it says "closing failed"
could anyone help please
btw the commands i just typed are translated from
french...so maybe they aren t the correct terms
cheers

 

[Colin Painter]

Can you tell us what you are trying to do? It sounds like you are running XP
off of the C drive and that you are also trying to format C. Is that so? If
this is correct then XP is trying to prevent you from shooting yourself in
the foot.

cp

 

[Alex Nichol]

hi,i tried to format my windows xp working computer,but
it always fail
saying that "the volume is used by another process"
then it asks me if i want to "close the volume"
i answer"y"

You do it as part of a reinstall of the system after booting the XP CD
direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New Install.
When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the
current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at the next
stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one