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Unable to format HDD

Thatslife
Resolved

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Posted June 18, 2011 at 5:44PM

I have been due booting with Vista and Windows 7 for a while but no longer need Vista. I plan to use this HDD as an internal back up.

I assumed I could just format the drive when in Windows 7 which is installed on a different HDD but I get the message:

'This device is in use. Another program or process is using this drive. Do you want to format it anyway?'

Clicking yes I get:

Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Win 7 64 Core 2 Quad Q6600 4 GB RAM

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ICF

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Posted June 18, 2011 at 6:01PM

Try this program KillDisk

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted June 18, 2011 at 6:05PM

That's because the boot loader is on your c drive same as vista.

If the W7 is on a separate drive (not partition) remove the c:drive

put the sata cable from the D: drive into the first sata port

Boot from the W7 DVD and select startup repair from the menu.

Windows will install a new boot loader on the drive.

Make syre windows 7 boots normally after the repair.

Then you can reconnect the old drive into the second sata port restart the machine and you should then be able to format it and use it as a spare drive.

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