Cant reformat HDD Any Ideas

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 03:21

Hey

I have a 2nd HDD in my computer and it has an old install of windows 7 on it and windows is not letting me format it im guessing its to do with the fact that theres an OS on it does anyone have any ideas how i can format it???

s452 · 20 Jan 2010 at 03:24

tried going into administritive tools > disk management and jsut deleting the partition?

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 04:12

No can do its not a partition either its just my old hdd that i wish to use for some back up

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 04:29

As above, administrator tools/disk management and just delete the partition or format.

DoctorPolski · 20 Jan 2010 at 08:54

chris__stoke said:
No can do its not a partition either its just my old hdd that i wish to use for some back up

hmm if it doesn't have any partitions then it can't have windows 7 or anything else for that matter installed on it. Did you mean it doesn't have any logical partitions as in 100% of the disk is given over to one primary partition? If so that is still a partition and you really should just be able to drop it from Disk Management.

If it truly is blank (as in brand new) it may need to be initialised which can also be done via Disk Management.

Could it possibly still be marked as a an active partition since you say it has had Win 7 on it? If so mark it as not active then try to nuke it.

rpstewart · 20 Jan 2010 at 09:08

Post a screenshot of the Disk Management window then we can see what's going on. It may be that the system is actually booting from the drive you want to format. Windows won't allow you to format the partition which contains the boot files.

domthecondom · 20 Jan 2010 at 10:38

could it be that it need's to be put in slave to be formated? Could be an old IDE harddrive?

Or am i chatting rubbish?

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:01

You haven't accidently booted from this disk, that would stop you from formatting,

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:06

Ahh right yea it does have a primary partition which has windows 7 on it

It is the F Drive which i need to format what you mean by "Nuke it" lol

Also anyone now hoe i can change my main drive from E to C as it annoys the hell out hell out of me not being my C drive

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:46

Right click the E drive, one of the options is "change drive letter and paths"

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:49

Right click the F drive and choose format-simples.

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:53

YEA it wont let me change the letter and there is no choice to format simples it says format but its greyd out :/

UKDTweak · 20 Jan 2010 at 12:54

Did you dual boot at some point, hence have a windows install on the F: drive... it's seen in DM as a System disk....
How are the F: drive and your Boot drive E: connected to the motherboard?

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:08

All my drives are Sata and its cus the F drive used to be my main system drive but then i got 2 1TB drives put them in raid 0 and wanted use that as my main system Drive but for some unknown reason my DVD drive doesnt want to read my windows 7 disc so i had to install the os on the new HDD from a file then move over across now im left with the old F drive which id like to use for back up but i cant reformat it :/

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:33

Struggling for suggestions now, you sure you logged in as the administrator? Any other users listed when windows loads?

I'm pretty sure the only time windows will not let someone format a hard disk is when it is being used by that

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 13:34

Double post sorry

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 14:23

Hummm nahh its not that either :/ this is really annoying now not sure what els there is todo i would just put the windows disc in and format everything and start again but like i said my drive wont read the disc

rpstewart · 20 Jan 2010 at 14:26

OK, You can't format the F: drive because it's the system partition - ie the one the system boots from. You'll need to get the system booting from another disk before you can format f:

If I remember right you should be able to disconnect the F: drive entirely (at which point the system will fail to boot) and then boot from a Win 7 disk into the recovery console and add the boot files to the F: drive using the fixboot command. It's probably worth making sure that the F: drive is the only disk connected when you do this, that way you're sure that the boot files will go onto the right disk.

stulid · 20 Jan 2010 at 14:38

But the drive he is booting from is E:

Why it wont let him Blitz F: is odd

chris__stoke · 20 Jan 2010 at 15:00

Yea the drive im booting from is E: and i cant boot from the disc as my drive refuses to read my windows 7 disc grrrrrr or i would most probs just boot from that and reformat all this is such a head ache in all my years off computers this has to be the most annoying thing ive ever come across lol