Formatting an HDD

[Korrosiv]

Hello,
I took a HDD from another laptop that no longer works and installed it in my newer laptop as a secondary hdd... the problem is, I can't format it.

I'm not sure what is on the disk, as I can't access it because it has an install of Windows on it, and it's password protected and there is no way I can recover the password.

I'm stuck. I try to format it like you would any other disk, but the format option is greyed out.

I try deleting all the files on the disk, but it tells me that it is in use by something else, which I can't figure out because I'm not using it for anything.

I'm not even sure what to search for to figure this one out.

I'm pretty good with computers, and have been messing around them them for the better part of 15 years, however, I've never ran into something quite like this. I always thought I could just erase everything, or format the disk to get rid of everything on it, but it's not working.

Anyone have any ideas or tips?

 

[Paperdoc]

Have you tired to Delete the Partition(s) on that drive? I can understand that you would not be allowed to Format a Partition that is password-protected, but I don't know whether you can Delete a Partition on such a HDD.

If you can do that, you are left with an empty drive like a new one. Then you can Initialize the HDD (combination of Creating a new Partition and formatting it).

My other idea would be to use utility for Zero-Fill the HDD. That probably can be done without a Password, and then you REALLY have an empty "new" HDD to use.