Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Disks > Format HD with Vista
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cisco   03-20-2008 at 05:16:15 PM

I recently went to Vista on this computer and installed it on a new hard drive. I would like to format my old storage drive which is now my d: drive. When I try to go through my computer and right click on the drive to reformat, it goes through all the normal warnings but then won't do it. If I go through disk management the action to format is grayed out. Any suggestions?

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KyleSTL   03-20-2008 at 06:41:11 PM
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Download a utility from the manufaturer, I know WD makes LifeGuard Diagnosics and LifeGuard Utilities that are both pretty awesome. I've used them on Maxtor, Samsumg, and Toshiba drives flawlessly. I'd suggest a low-level format (DBAN or WD LG) before you reformat (for GP).

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
2GB DDR400 Corsair VS (4*512) | eVGA nVidia GF 7600GS AGP vmod 1.46/1.91 OCd 759/907
WD 160GB & 640GB SATA
WinXP MCE 2004
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cisco   03-21-2008 at 04:59:41 AM
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I will try that, thanks for the tip.

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cisco   03-21-2008 at 04:45:01 PM
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Bummer WD utilities won't work with vista 64bit, what a shock. (please note sarcasm.)

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ainarssems   03-21-2008 at 06:27:48 PM
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Boot from vista install disk and format it from there. Be sure to format right disk so. Don't format Your installation disk. And when its formatted just exit installation without actually installing second vista.

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cisco   03-21-2008 at 08:19:27 PM
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I'll give that a try, I guess I could do that with an XP disk as well. As I recall they made it easier for the average person to install Vista, but it seems to have lost some of the flexibility of the old OS setup. I'll try it first from Vista because I need to figure out how to use that disk for this type of stuff. Thanks for the suggestion.

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leon2006   03-21-2008 at 11:14:04 PM
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Get Patition Magic 8.... Its a good drive utility software...It includes drive format function.

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stoner133   03-22-2008 at 12:16:39 AM
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You must be logged in as the system administrator to format the drive. If your the only user of the system go to my computer then right click on the drive and look for the security tab. Locate your name as the user and change the advanced permissions to give you full control over the drive.

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imrul   03-22-2008 at 01:09:14 AM
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partition 8 doesnt work with vista 64

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