Hard drive wont format

[Guest]

Hi,
I have just bought a new hard drive and now my old hard drive (which is now
primary slave) wont format and every time time I try I get this message
"Windows can not format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other
programs thar are using this drive, and make sure that no window is
displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again", well I have
made sure the drive is not being used, or that the contents are not being
displayed and I still get that message, I need to format this drive in order
to sell it and I always get this message.
Is there any way I can format it with out having to install a seperate
program or go to DOS?
Thank you

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please try the following article by Michael Stevens:

"How do I format a NTFS, Fat/Fat32 drive with XP installed?"
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/format_XP.htm

 

[neil]

Have you installed XP onto the new disk with the old one disconnected.?
Neil

 

[Bob Harris]

You could try a DOS floppy with FDISK. First delete all partitions, then
create new ones and format as FAT32 or NTFS, depending on the intended usage
(win98 or ME can not use NTFS, neither an LINUX or MAC).

OR, You could boot from the XP CDROM, run the XP recovery console, and
format (and/or delete partitions).

However, you should FIRST investigate why XP thinks that the disk is being
used. It is rarely wrong about such things. For example, try shutting
down, unplugging ther old disk, and see whether the PC still boots into XP.
A not uncommon user error is installing a second disk and XP installation in
a way that leaves a few key boot files on the old disk. In such a case, if
you remove the old disk, XP will ot boot (classic NTLDR is missing error).
This situation is fixable, but I mention it to emphasize that you need to
proceed carefully with something as permanent as a reformat.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
I have the same problem/message (disk in use...). Looked everywhere for
usage of this slave HDD, but none, except possibly for:
- AVG Antivirus (but doesn't look it's assigned for testing)
- The disk is SHARED, but don't know how to unshare it (i'm single user,
presently, seems it's shared automatically...)
- The WinMedia library points to music files on this disk, but it's closed
(unless: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\My Playlists
affects it).
- Some icons on Desktop point to it (so what?).
I like to think that if i can:
- UnShare the disk (how? doesn't let me)
- Repartition it (is it ok?)
This may give me the possibility.
Your comments please... (if you don't mind also to email:Cc to
(e-mail address removed))
Thanks.