[Dymond]

Hi all,
Well when i try to format my hard drive (using the method to right click and select format) i get this message:
"Windows cannot format this drive. 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."
Well i have done everything that i could think of to get rid of this message (which isnt much lol) and i cant seem to get around it, i have also tried entering 'FORMAT C:' into dos which does not worth either.
I am on a Dell Dimension 8300 and XP SP2, thanks for any help.

Dymond.

 

[dai]

you cannot format C drive from within windows if your op.system is on it
boot from the xp cd and choose install and it will offer to do the format for you

 

[Guest]

Darik's Boot and Nuke : http://dban.sourceforge.net/ should do the work nicely and neatly. Download the floppy version. And copy it to a floppy disk and boot. Then use your OS cd to format. ( dont prefer a quick format and I would recommend you to use ntfs as opposed to fat32 )

 

[Dymond]

thanks guys for quick answer, ill give it a go and get back to ya

 

[heistmy]

alo all,
here hav a serious problem, i was trying to reformat my comp just now but unfortunaly when i boot with OS CD (windows xp) the comp screen jst gone black and nothing happen after i press "boot from CD" . will it be the hard disk failure. ??? or ... any1 can help ~_~

 

[linderman]

Welcome to TSF:

I advise you to download the diagnostic utility of your hard drive manufacturer and try to run it on your drive / those type progs genrally run in DOS and indepedent of the windows OS / if the diagnostic utility proves the drive to be healthy then we can proceed from there


regards

joe

 

[heistmy]

thnx for the advise. The diag. result shows that my HDD dun having any errors...its in healty status.. what should i do...??

 

[linderman]

OK / now that we know the drive is good and healthy / download (free prog)and run the drive eraser DBAN boot & nuke linked above by PurpleSky / after completing that your windows OS will be ready to load without hesitation !!

dont hesitate to ask more questions if needed

regards

joe

 

[gasayers]

Dban to big

OK. About to prove I'm an idiot. dban is a ziped file of 1.5MB for floppy.
I presume it needs to be unziped and will be bigger still. 2 floppy disks???

Glen

 

[gasayers]

Self answer. Read the manual!!!! Just found the read me file on the ziped download. Sorry.