Can't format a disk in W7

Django x2 · 2 Mar 2011 at 23:47

Ok, I have 3 disks in this machine. A 320Gb system drive (C:\ has Windows 7 on). This drive is partitioned into two, the rest is D:\.

The next physical drive is a 500Gb drive (E:\)

The next physical drive is a 1Tb drive (F:\) which is a recent addition.

I moved all the data (music, films, etc) from E:\ to F:\ and then went to format E:. Windows said it couldn't

I tried Disk Part and it told me that "Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume".

So, Windows in it's wisdom has chosen to do this, I haven't told it to use E:\. I know it's not pagefile, that's on C:\ and hibernation is off. How can I check / move the other stuff so I can format this drive sucessfully

d_brennen · 2 Mar 2011 at 23:57

hmmm odd one. Have a look here:

Type system into the search/run box, click on System Information, Software Environment, Environment Variables

See if any have strayed off of C:

Second thing that springs to mind is disconnecting all drives bar C: and running system repair from the Win 7 DVD

All I can think of, time for bed

SiriusB · 3 Mar 2011 at 01:54

Right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management

Your C: drive should have Boot, Page File, Crash Dump attribute while System Reserved will be System.

Check your other partitions to see if they are listed as any of the above in bold. I suspect it is the Boot attribute that is on the wrong partition. If it is indeed the Boot attribute, then follow this link: http://superuser.com/questions/6364...tmgr-bootsect-bak-boot-directory-to-different

If it is one of the others let us know and I will try to provide a solution.

bledd · 3 Mar 2011 at 10:31

As above, check disk management, your document folders may be pointing to that drive also.

Only install windows with one hard drive plugged in.

Django x2 · 3 Mar 2011 at 12:09

Yeah it is boot. I unplugged the other drives and booted Windows 7 from the CD and repaired the install. I took the other drive and "clean all" diskpart on another machine

Thanks guys

SiriusB · 3 Mar 2011 at 12:28

Glad you sorted it.

Definitely should unplug other drives when installing the OS. Windows tends to stick the boot loader on the drive listed first in the BIOS boot order - regardless of where you actually install Windows to!

anything I don't mind · 3 Mar 2011 at 12:30

just right click on the drive in my computer and format that way?

SiriusB · 3 Mar 2011 at 13:00

It wouldn't let him as that is where the boot loader was being kept. Once he moved it he was able to format.