Cannot format 2nd HDD

[siravarice]

I have three HDD's installed. One with the OS on and two for space and what not. But one of the second HDDs has an OS on it and wont let me format it. Last time i deleted everything from it and had to reinstall windows as it wouldnt start. Any ideas? need it formatted as all my films are going on it.

 

[Pyr0]

have you tried deleting the volume in disk mangement ?

 

[Youngie1337]

Way I would do it

Remove all the other HDD's except the one you want to format. Insert good ol' Windows disc and format.

 

[siravarice]

Ill try the windows disc way, seems sensible. Not sure if it has system files on it or not though, I dont know why if it did.

 

[Dav0s]

even if it does have system files on it, windows install should still format it no problems.

 

[Antnorwe]

I also have this same problem. I tried to delete the volume and Windows says 'cannot delete an active system partition'. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64bit if that matters.

 

[siravarice]

Lol you finally joined then!

 

[Antnorwe]

Yup XD figured i might as well

 

[Toxcity]

Sometimes you can get one harddisk with the Master Boot Record on it and another with the actual OS. That would stop you from formatting.

 

[siravarice]

Sometimes you can get one harddisk with the Master Boot Record on it and another with the actual OS. That would stop you from formatting.

I think that is what it is, thats what I got last time. How to I move the Master Boot Record?

 

[Toxcity]

I have never tried it myself. Can you not just manually delete all that is on the drive leaving the MBR in tack? If not maybe try this... be very very careful.

 

[Pyr0]

easybcd has a nice easy to understand GUI

It's worked for me in vista the past and should also work for win7

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

or just run a boot repair with the windows 7 dvd

[edit]

as long as you're not dual booting, running this in an admin command prompt should fix the win7/vista MBR

Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All

"Drive:" is the drive where your windows 7 install dvd is

[edit2]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

[edit3] lol, nvm, it's the same link Tox posted