Solved Data hard disk formatting problem

[Sigurd]

I have a data drive which I have cleared of all but a handful of files and one folder. I am unable to delete these even though I have ensured permissions are set to Read/Write. I then tried to format it as I was going to start afresh with it anyway, but Windows said it was unable to format it. I now can't access the drive at all. I tried in DOS mode but that too failed saying I needed to do it in "elevated mode" (which I have never come across before).
What now? Thanks.
Ian
PS - Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

 

[Golden]

Ian,

Try it from an elevated command prompt (DOS mode).

1. Click Start

2. In the search box, type cmd
3. In the list that appears, right-click on cmd.exe and choose Run as administrator
4. In the command window that opens,try the format command.

See OPTION 2, STEP 8 here for the format commands:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

Regards,
Golden

 

[jumanji]

Hi Sigurd,

Sorry for the intrusion. ( At the moment I have no suggestion/s.) I am just curious to know what are those files and folders that refuse deletion. Sometimes it may help if we know those details and what exactly is the error message you get - when you try to delete and when you try to format. ( A verbatim reproduction will be better.)

 

[Sigurd]

Thanks Golden - that did the trick.
As for what the files were, they were old CorelDraw data files (.CDR). There was also a hidden folder with a long Hex code name which I know you normally shouldn't delete, though I don't know what they are. Perhaps you can enlighten me. In this case it was OK to do so as it was a drive from an old PC which I was re-using.

 

[jumanji]

Glad that running the format command with elevated privileges as guided by Golden resolved your problem and thanks for the additional info you provided.

OK. I don't know much about the Corel draw files and but the other one would perhaps be the System Volume Information.

 

[patio]

or a chkdsk Temp file...

 

[Golden]

Glad its sorted.