Can't format (erase) hard drive

I installed a new hard drive recently (C) and made the old hard drive a
slave (E). I copied the contents of the old drive to the new drive, leaving
the contents on the old drive intact until I could satisfy myself the new
hard drive was functioning. Now that I have satisfied myself that all is
well with the new C drive, I tried to format (erase) the old drive E. I get
this error message: "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 the drive. Then try formatting again."
In fact, no window was displaying the drive, and I cannot imagine that any
program or disk utility could be open since I would not have changed the
location of any program from C to E. But I'm a neophyte on this problem, so
there could be something running in the background of which I am not aware.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]

Did you change the Drive letter in Computer Management in the Control Panel
under Disc Mangement option? I would guess this is what you did since I
don't know of another way to do this. When I have changed CD drives (not
HDs) in this applet, (we will call them D and E drives) I have to change D
drive to another letter (and not E, if you follow, because the E drive is
already assigned) So I change it to, say, for example, M.
Then change the E to D (because that letter has been freed) and then change
the other letter back to E, thereby swapping those 2 letters and Drives in
the System applet. I would guess this is what must be done with Hard Drive
leter changes also, but am not certain if there is another way to do this
except with 3rd party software. So i would have to know HOW you transferred
all the stuff from 1 drive to the other, (and assume it had no operating
system on it) unless you used a program outside of XP to do this(?)


"HH" wrote in message
...
I installed a new hard drive recently (C) and made the old hard drive a
slave (E). I copied the contents of the old drive to the new drive,
leaving
the contents on the old drive intact until I could satisfy myself the new
hard drive was functioning. Now that I have satisfied myself that all is
well with the new C drive, I tried to format (erase) the old drive E. I
get
this error message: "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 the drive. Then try formatting
again."
In fact, no window was displaying the drive, and I cannot imagine that any
program or disk utility could be open since I would not have changed the
location of any program from C to E. But I'm a neophyte on this problem,
so
there could be something running in the background of which I am not
aware.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]

Try disconnecting the old drive and boot the PC, if you get errors then the
old drive was still being used.

Repost & let us know what happened.
Neil
"HH" wrote in message
...
I installed a new hard drive recently (C) and made the old hard drive a
slave (E). I copied the contents of the old drive to the new drive,
leaving
the contents on the old drive intact until I could satisfy myself the new
hard drive was functioning. Now that I have satisfied myself that all is
well with the new C drive, I tried to format (erase) the old drive E. I
get
this error message: "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 the drive. Then try formatting
again."
In fact, no window was displaying the drive, and I cannot imagine that any
program or disk utility could be open since I would not have changed the
location of any program from C to E. But I'm a neophyte on this problem,
so
there could be something running in the background of which I am not
aware.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]

After screwing around for half a day, I caved in and took the computer to
the local shop. A disk for copying the content of the old drive to the new
drive came with the new drive, but the shop had their own program for
copying. The two drives, new (C) and old (E), are correctly identified in
Disk Management.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]


"Sandman" wrote in message
...
| Did you change the Drive letter in Computer Management in the Control
Panel
| under Disc Mangement option? I would guess this is what you did since I
| don't know of another way to do this. When I have changed CD drives (not
| HDs) in this applet, (we will call them D and E drives) I have to change D
| drive to another letter (and not E, if you follow, because the E drive is
| already assigned) So I change it to, say, for example, M.
| Then change the E to D (because that letter has been freed) and then
change
| the other letter back to E, thereby swapping those 2 letters and Drives in
| the System applet. I would guess this is what must be done with Hard Drive
| leter changes also, but am not certain if there is another way to do this
| except with 3rd party software. So i would have to know HOW you
transferred
| all the stuff from 1 drive to the other, (and assume it had no operating
| system on it) unless you used a program outside of XP to do this(?)
|
|
| "HH" wrote in message
| ...
| I installed a new hard drive recently (C) and made the old hard drive a
| slave (E). I copied the contents of the old drive to the new drive,
| leaving
| the contents on the old drive intact until I could satisfy myself the
new
| hard drive was functioning. Now that I have satisfied myself that all is
| well with the new C drive, I tried to format (erase) the old drive E. I
| get
| this error message: "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 the drive. Then try formatting
| again."
| In fact, no window was displaying the drive, and I cannot imagine that
any
| program or disk utility could be open since I would not have changed the
| location of any program from C to E. But I'm a neophyte on this problem,
| so
| there could be something running in the background of which I am not
| aware.
| I would appreciate any suggestions.
|
| Harlan
| ---
| [If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from
the
| address.]
|
|
|
|
|

You have problems with your computer and then post questions to the
newsgroup for help. Then you toatally ignore all the advice offered and
take you PC into the shop. You will learn a lot more if you read the
answers the other members of the group suggest and have fun in thr process.
ricardo

ricardo wrote:
You have problems with your computer and then post questions to the
newsgroup for help. Then you toatally ignore all the advice offered and
take you PC into the shop. You will learn a lot more if you read the
answers the other members of the group suggest and have fun in thr process.
ricardo

I can't help but notice that you seem to have claimed the franchise for
nasty replies here. Everyone may not share your definition of 'fun'.