Format old OS hard drive

[beagrie07]

Hi, I recently upgraded and moved the OS to a new drive. I want to format the old OS drive (now D drive). How would I go about doing this? I know you can't format a bootable drive too

Any help?

Thanks!

 

[marsmimar]

Make sure the drive is connected to your computer (internal drive should be, external drive needs to be plugged in.) Then click Start > Computer and find the drive in the list of drives. Ensure any data on the drive that you wish to keep has been copied to another drive, as formatting will remove all data. Right-click on the drive's icon and select the "Format..." option to bring up the Format window.

Select the required file system (you'll probably want to stay with NTFS) and give the drive a new name (called a "Volume label"). If you just want to erase a drive that has already been formatted, consider using the "Quick Format" option; otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click "Start" to begin the formatting process. A full format could take several hours.​

 

[beagrie07]

I tried that but it says "windows cannot format this drive" or something like that. It's because the drive has old windows files on it. I've deleted the boot path using easyBCD but it doesn't work still.

 

[ROCcomputerguy]

use gparted (GParted - Browse /gparted-live-stable at SourceForge.net), run from dvd or usb, follow instructions, format, make into primary partition and NTFS and ur done

if u wana keep ur old drive, dun format it cuz i did it before and had to install everything again

 

[beagrie07]

That sounds good, I'll have to have a look later after work. Would formatting it affect booting into windows at all? The boot drive is now my new one but I'm unsure if booting into windows will be an issue.

 

[ROCcomputerguy]

Only if you format your OS drive, so don't format it

Boot will be okay

 

[beagrie07]

Sounds good, I'll give it a shot later, I'll post my results

 

[TVeblen]

It might be a good idea to post a screenshot of your Disk Management window with both drives connected. You may have a system reserved partition on the old drive.

How did you "move the OS" to the other drive?

Other thoughts:
Run Disk Check on the drive to test for potential problems in windows, and run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic program also before using the old drive as a data drive.

 

[ROCcomputerguy]

Oh, I use disk clone to clone from hard drive A to B since I have 2 hard drives

try this http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/

ummm TVeblen, my seagate hard drive never came with a diagnostic program, so I check it whenever I install a OS

 

[essenbe]

Seagate Seatools

 

[TVeblen]

Oh, I use disk clone to clone from hard drive A to B since I have 2 hard drives

try this Free Hard Disk Copy/Clone Software for PC & Server Hard Drive. Disk clone, disk backup, disk image and partition copy freeware.

ummm TVeblen, my seagate hard drive never came with a diagnostic program, so I check it whenever I install a OS

Who is the OP here?

 

[beagrie07]

It might be a good idea to post a screenshot of your Disk Management window with both drives connected. You may have a system reserved partition on the old drive.

How did you "move the OS" to the other drive?

By that I meant I did a clean install on another drive

 

[essenbe]

Were both drives connected during the install? Also, please post a screenshot of your disk management expanded to show the top and bottom sections.

 

[beagrie07]

They were both connected on install yeah, I'll have to post a screenshot in a couple of hours when I'm home from work

 

[beagrie07]

Ok, I added the disk management, the highlighted disk is the one I want to format but it doesn't show properly because I tried to use the disk part command on it. Is there any way I can access it to get something off it before its formatted?

Cheers

 

[essenbe]

I would suggest before doing anything else, shut down the computer, remove the power cable from the hard drive and start back up. That should show you whether there are ant needed system files on the drive. If you get a good startup with that drive disconnected, there should be no problem with wiping it. I don't know what you did in diskpart, but the drive appears empty. You may try Recuva to see if it can recover any data from the drive. Of course it begs the question, if there was needed data on the drive, why use diskpart to wipe it. Also, You may have better luck if you put your OS on port 0. After making those changes, reconnect the drive, go to disk management, right click the drive, and see if you have the option to delete partition. If you do that, then just create a new simple volume.

 

[beagrie07]

Yeah I thought there wasnt any data on it at the time then I realised there was something I needed, I fixed it, just gave it a drive letter and I can see it again.

I'll disconnect the drive now and see if it boots in.

 

[beagrie07]

Ok, I disconnected the drive and windows won't boot without it plugged in, what do I do next?

 

[essenbe]

Go you have the repair disk? if not go to control panel, backup your computer and select create system repair disk, or you can use the installation disk and click on repair on the 2nd screen.
Boot into the repair disk and follow this tutorial on Boot manager is missing.
You can also try to restore MBR
Someone who knows better than me may need to help, but I am pretty sure you will have to set your C drive as active using diskpart.

 

[TVeblen]

Yes, the old hard drive is marked System and Active, so it contains the files needed to boot.

You will need to Use Diskpart to set that Disk with the C: drive to Active, then run Startup Repair 3 or more times to create the correct files in the correct place.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S

Important: Be sure to disconnect all the other drives before doing this! When you run Startup Repair you should only have the Disk with the C: drive connected.

If you are game, and you haven't got too far with installing all your programs, you could just reinstall Windows again - this time with all the extra drive disconnected.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html