Drive failed to format

[ExAm]

I hooked up the 15GB maxtor that's been sitting alongside my other one, but when I try to format it in Windows, it tells me
"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of this drive. Then try formatting again."
I have no disk utilities open, and no windows are displaying the drive's contents. What gives?

It's on cable select, and plugged into the slave plug on my IDE cable. It spins up and is recognized by Windows.

[4RT1LL3RY]

You could boot up from the windows disk and just format it there.

[ExAm]

Tried that. I don't want to install Windows on it, just format it. The setup screen won't do that.

[kenney001]

you know a magnet will do the same thing to the disk dont you?

[ExAm]

Can a magnet format a disk in NTFS? :|

[kenney001]

if your good.....lol

no probably though its something corrupted on the disk itself. If you dont care all that much about it i would use a weak magnet and swipe over it....

[Syuusuke]

Is it old?
It's recognized by Windows, but is it accessible?

[ExAm]

It's accessible, but it's formated in FAT32. I can put files on it and take them off, but I want to format it to NTFS, for better file handling. The DoM is November 2001

[kenney001]

i would donload a bootable linux (ubuntu is good) and boot into it. Run the install manager, reformat the disk to ext3, and then reboot back into windows and format.

[ExAm]

The error is only telling me to quit things that may be displaying its contents, and quit any disk utilities, none of which are open.

[Kybo_Ren]

Get a linux disk, connect only that hard drive, boot into linux "rescue" mode (at the boot prompt type "linux rescue" or "vmlinuz rescue")


get root access (su) and type this:


dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
Now boot to Windows. Voila, you'll be able to format the disk (well, first you need to partition it -- that command will erase everything on the physical disk, just like you had received it from the factory).


EDIT: You could also try it in Windows, but be CAREFUL! You're not going to want hda, as that's primary master.
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
Good luck

[ExAm]

Meh. I'll just use it in FAT32 until I get my new drive.

[Patrickssj6]

Meh. I'll just use it in FAT32 until I get my new drive.
Dude why are you asking in the first place and making a thread if you are to lazy to download Ubuntu (which is a idiot-secure software/OS to format drives with; you don't even have to install it)
or follow the advice Kybo gave you?

[erbic]

Hell, just download GParted. It's a bare-bones Linux Live-CD with nothing but the GNOME partition editor on it. Graphical user interface, so you can see what you're doing, and it makes it fairly difficult to erase anything but what you want to.

What's wrong with Linux, anyway? I use it sparingly, mostly for technical stuff; it's user-friendly enough for something like this.

[ExAm]

All I was looking for was a simple way to fix the error I posted, and use Windows to format. Not some method that requires downloading and using an entire OS to format a drive that I'm only using temporarily. If I'm going to use this drive for such a small time, I'll either format it quickly, in Windows, or I won't at all. I already ordered a new hard drive, it doesn't matter.