Cant Format E Drive Old copy of windows seems stuck on it

It looks like you installed Windows with more than one hard drive connected at the time.
Partition Z is flagged Active and contains the System Files, necessary for start up. This is why you are not allowed to delete it.

Note: keep in mind that Partition letters only apply in Windows, you have 4 physical drives: Disks 0-3, and we should be referring to those.

Disk 3 has the Windows installation files on it, and the Boot files. But it is not flagged Active. Your Windows system will not start if the Active partition on Disk 1 were deleted.

Except, you have a second Active partition on Disk 0. A Windows system should only have 1 Active partition.

Your Page File is on Disk 2. Did you do that manually? (the page file can be moved, it will not interfere will start up)

Bottom line: your disks are a mess.
You can clean things up by removing the Active flags from Disks 0 and 1, then disconnect ALL hard drives except Disk 3, then run Startup Repair from boot to rebuild the proper disk structure. You may need to run Startup Repair 3 times to complete this.

Then when you connect the extra hard drives you can delete the partitions, now that Windows does not require them anymore.

EDIT: just read all posts since I was typing this. You may be a prime candidate for a clean installation on your SSD (all other drives disconnected and cleaned of Active flags, of course).

TVeblen said:

It looks like you installed Windows with more than one hard drive connected at the time.
Partition Z is flagged Active and contains the System Files, necessary for start up. This is why you are not allowed to delete it.

Note: keep in mind that Partition letters only apply in Windows, you have 4 physical drives: Disks 0-3, and we should be referring to those.

Disk 3 has the Windows installation files on it, and the Boot files. But it is not flagged Active. Your Windows system will not start if the Active partition on Disk 1 were deleted.

Except, you have a second Active partition on Disk 0. A Windows system should only have 1 Active partition.

Your Page File is on Disk 2. Did you do that manually? (the page file can be moved, it will not interfere will start up)

Bottom line: your disks are a mess.
You can clean things up by removing the Active flags from Disks 0 and 1, then disconnect ALL hard drives except Disk 3, then run Startup Repair from boot to rebuild the proper disk structure. You may need to run Startup Repair 3 times to complete this.

Then when you connect the extra hard drives you can delete the partitions, now that Windows does not require them anymore.

EDIT: just read all posts since I was typing this. You may be a prime candidate for a clean installation on your SSD (all other drives disconnected and cleaned of Active flags, of course).

I agree with TVeblen your disks are indeed a mess and a clean install would beneift you since if your other drives failed at this time you would have a lot of sudden issues to work with.

@TVeblen: Do you think they would be fine with using something like easy bcd to just move it to the ssd (disk 3) and then move the page file normally and erase the others active flags? That might be easier than a clean install.

Pitbull69 said:

I have just removed all HD's and left the SSD in, and it boots fine and everyything works as it should,

So could I not use killdisk and erase the whole of my Drive Z: ?

My drives are a mess, I have been cleaning stuff up today, its the 1st step towards getting computer running better, I do eventually want to get faster HD's but for now will have to make do, I am trying to refrain from a new install as I am bidding on a new MOBO and 8core CPU and will have to format to install them, so atm just trying to get things as clean as possible, ready for that.

That is odd as you have no system partition on your ssd, if you want to just clean those others you can do it with diskpart but I would wait to hear what TVeblen thinks about it.

rvcjew said:

@TVeblen: Do you think they would be fine with using something like easy bcd to just move it to the ssd (disk 3) and then move the page file normally and erase the others active flags? That might be easier than a clean install.

Yes I think that would be fine. And, yes easier too.
But...
Sometimes things have gone too far, and the time it takes to clean up all the problems exceeds the time to reinstall. Only pittbull knows for sure!

Pitbull69 said:

I have just removed all HD's and left the SSD in, and it boots fine and everyything works as it should,

So could I not use killdisk and erase the whole of my Drive Z: ?

My drives are a mess, I have been cleaning stuff up today, its the 1st step towards getting computer running better, I do eventually want to get faster HD's but for now will have to make do, I am trying to refrain from a new install as I am bidding on a new MOBO and 8core CPU and will have to format to install them, so atm just trying to get things as clean as possible, ready for that.

I am quite surprised to hear that. You mean you have physically disconnected the cables to the drives, right?

But if Windows starts and runs with only the SSD attached, then yes to all your questions. Clean, wipe, delete, unflag as you please on any extra drives. (Data is backed up I assume).

Was the SSD attached when you snapped the Disk Management screen shot? If yes, which disk was it? Disk3?