Formatt the pc

Discussion in 'Software' started by greenbrucelee, Jul 10, 2007.

  1. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    As some of you know I recently formatted my pc to fix an error I was getting.

    My mate has gave me his pc to formatt as he says when he has tried to do it, the os brings up a message saying 'quite any disk utilitie programs that may be using this volume, and any window using it'

    Do any of you know what this means?

    I told him to disable his firewall but he says this hasnt done anything.

    Any ideas?

    This has happened both through the command prompt and by right clicking on his C drive
     
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  2. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Does he have the Norton suite installed. That has a disk utility that stops you from changing the disk format/files. I know I had a PC in that had that installed. You will need to boot up windows and disable/uninstall it and then format the disk.

    Alternatively you can load up a barts or a live ubuntu disk and hosde the disk through that.
     
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  3. C4sper

    C4sper Byte Poster

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    are you trying to format C: drive running the system from the C: drive?
     
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  4. derkit

    derkit Gigabyte Poster

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    Put an old 98 floppy disk in, boot to it and then format - at least you shouldn't have any programs running then.

    The fact that it mentions "close any windows that are open" seems to suggest he's trying to format it within windows itself. And trying to format the C drive from the command prompt probably means he using Run > cmd inside windows, rather than outside.
     
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  5. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    You can't format the main disk while Windows is running! This is by design!

    If it is XP or Win2k then boot with the installation disk and install. During the install it will prompt you to redo the partitions/formats.

    If Win9X then use a Win98SE boot floppy to format the disk.

    Harry.
     
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  6. C4sper

    C4sper Byte Poster

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    or just search net for windows 95/98 start disk image, (http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm)
    put it on the floppy and just type format c:

    then just 'fdisk' and make some partitions.
    a little warning: fdisk has some HDD size limitations!!
     
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  7. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Nortons suite is his firewall, I will try that.
     
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  8. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    <Cough> - Diabling Norton won't make any difference. You can't format a system disk while Windows is running - it's like trying to change the foundations of a house while the house is still standing!

    hARRY.
     
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  9. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    So just boot with his xp disk and set it to format and re-install?
     
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  10. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Yup. During the early part of install it will present a list of disks, and will show that there is an OS already installed. This bit is XP's equivalent to the old FDISK.

    At this point you need to delete the old partition, and then reallocate the whole disk (if this is what you want) for the new install. It will then prompt for the type of format (full or quick).

    After the reinstall is done don't forget to install the motherboard drivers *first* before anything else.

    Harry.
     
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  11. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    cheer Harry :D
     
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