2nd hard drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I installed a second hard drive (slave) that had Windows
XP installed. All works ok, but I want to format the
hard drive and start clean. Everytime I attempt to
format this drive, I get a message that I cannot format
because the drive is in use. I don't see how it can be
in use because there is nothing left on it except that
copy of xp I can't get rid of. I'm booted off the Master
hard drive which also has XP installed.

Any ideas how I can format this second hard drive?

jb

 

[null]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

jbdives wrote:

> I installed a second hard drive (slave) that had Windows
> XP installed. All works ok, but I want to format the
> hard drive and start clean. Everytime I attempt to
> format this drive, I get a message that I cannot format
> because the drive is in use. I don't see how it can be
> in use because there is nothing left on it except that
> copy of xp I can't get rid of. I'm booted off the Master
> hard drive which also has XP installed.
>
> Any ideas how I can format this second hard drive?
>
> jb

Boot to a bootable MS-DOS floppy that has DOS's FDISK program on it; in
this way, the second drive won't be 'in use'. MS-DOS won't be able to
read the file structure on the second hard drive, but it will be able to
recognize the fact that it has a non-DOS partition on it, and thus will
be able to delete the partition.

Using FDISK, delete the partition on the second hard drive - be careful
you don't delete the partition from the hard drive you want to keep! It
might be a good idea to temporarily remove the IDE or power cable from
the drive that you want to keep to be sure you don't accidentally delete
the data or partition on it.

Then, you should be able to reconnect everything and use XP to
repartition and reformat the second drive.

--
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data files regularly, and especially before making any changes to their
PC, as well as performing regular virus and spyware scans. I am not
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of this message.