Hard drive formatting

[Krakkenbus]

I'm having trouble formatting my hard drive in windows.
Is there any cmd prompt that I can use to do this or have I just got to wack in the windows CD and do it that way?

The hard drive I want to format doesn't contain my OS although it used to have windows XP on it before i manually deleted the files.

Cheers.

[edavies87]

Use Run to access compmgmt.msc

Right click the drive you want to format and that should fix it.

Ed

Edit: You need to select Disk Management then the drive! Left column.

[PMiddy]

My computer, Right Click on the Drive you want to delete and click format from the drop down menu

[Krakkenbus]

My computer, Right Click on the Drive you want to delete and click format from the drop down menu

no.

opps, i forgot to say that doing it that way didn't work

[vhero]

best way to do this is change file system to nfs or if it is already to fat32 then back it will corrupt the drive forcing a format its a crude way but it works if you dont know how to do this use google OR use your xp cd if you have one all you need to do is boot it up let it boot then it asks you what drive you want to install on select the drive you want to format and press "L" i think it was it should be clear on there then it asks how you want to format pick ntfs (quick) once its done restart without xp disc and HDD should be formatted.

You can do it also in XP which is probably easier but does not always work

Within XP go to Control Panel|Admin Tools|Computer

Management|Disk Management there select your drive and right click and partition. The problem is something on that drive is still probably being used so only the XP disc way would work anyways let me know how you get on.

[Blitzen]

My computer, Right Click on the Drive you want to delete and click format from the drop down menu

You cant format the main OS drive like that.
Whats going to run the format if you are clearing the program running it?

[Splash]

The hard drive I want to format doesn't contain my OS although it used to have windows XP on it before i manually deleted the files.

You cant format the main OS drive like that.
Whats going to run the format if you are clearing the program running it?

It's not the system drive, so a right click, format should do it.

If that's not working we need to know the error you recieve.

[Splash]

best way to do this is change file system to nfs or if it is already to fat32 then back it will corrupt the drive forcing a format its a crude way but it works if you dont know how

Whut? The FS conversion process works from FAT32 to NTFS but you cannot go the other way without using a third party tool (such as Partition Magic, and even then this is not guaranteed).

We need more information as to how it's not working if this isn't working. Advising someone to screw their filesystem up is not going to help them.

[vhero]

well if its not gonna format then that should work well good point about turning back though never thought of that making it a basic drive then reformatting NTFS should work fine though. If he wants to wipe the HD screwing with filesystems not a problem really..

[arthurleung]

It's not the system drive, so a right click, format should do it.

If that's not working we need to know the error you recieve.

I assume thats another harddrive you're trying to format...
One thing to note is that if the NTLDR happens to be on that harddrive, then you wouldn't be able to boot windows even though the installation is on another drive.

This is commonly the case when you dual-boot or the BIOS assumed that harddrive is the first boot device when you (re)installed Windows

Try pull that drive off and see if windows boot fine without it.
Also, you might have swap file set to use that drive as swap, in that case windows won't allow you to remove it too.

[peterb]

You cant format the main OS drive like that.
Whats going to run the format if you are clearing the program running it?

The format app will be resident and running from memory.

[Zadock]

question removed*

[Link97]

Magnet...

[HSK]

I assume thats another harddrive you're trying to format...
One thing to note is that if the NTLDR happens to be on that harddrive, then you wouldn't be able to boot windows even though the installation is on another drive.

This is commonly the case when you dual-boot or the BIOS assumed that harddrive is the first boot device when you (re)installed Windows

Try pull that drive off and see if windows boot fine without it.
Also, you might have swap file set to use that drive as swap, in that case windows won't allow you to remove it too.

I had this problem recently, even though i installed the OS on c drive, it put bootmgr on another active drive. i formatted it and everything went tits up. but vista repair managed to sort it out.

if you have multiple drive safer to have them disconnected until u've installed the OS on the main drive you want it on.

[The_SAN_Guy]

Hi
give the cmd format x: a go "where x is the drive letter for the drive you want to format"

just open run and type CMD then click run

there are a number of switches you can use see below:

H:\>help format
Formats a disk for use with Windows XP.

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q]
FORMAT volume [/Q]

volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:filesystem Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS).
/V:label Specifies the volume label.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/C NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compresse
by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opene
handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
are strongly recommended for general use.
NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).

Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume

FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918

Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
cluster size.

NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes
above 4096.

/F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track.

hope this helps