Solved HELP-Cannot Format Drive D

[denneny]

My D Drive apparently has a System partition. I cannot format the drive. There are three folders on drive backups, Wiindows, Program Files. These files are leftovers from a former PC. I have logged into D as an Administrator. When I try to format, I get message that System Partition cannot be formatted and the process stops.

Can someone tell me how to format this drive. Thanks.

 

[VistaKing]

Hi denneny

Can you upload an image of the disk management

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[denneny]

I have attached Computer Management screenshot. It is a 473.1 KB file. I hope you can find it.

 

[Britton30]

The D\ needs to be marked inactive first. Be positive you select the proper disk in diskpart.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html
Afterwards use the Disk Management to delete the volume and try formatting then.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2668-partition-volume-delete.html

 

[denneny]

OK. I inactivated D drive. Next, I attempted to delete the volume in Disk Management. I was told drive is in use. I overrode that and said continue with delete.

It started but returned error message:

"Delete is not allowed on current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume"

What is wrong? Do I need to reboot or change some setting first?

Jim Denneny

 

[Britton30]

Yeah, try a reboot, or better power off and back on. Are your sure your deactivated the D\?

 

[VistaKing]

Have you tried using Diskpart to format the drive?

Click on rb: type CMD inside Search programs and files box . Right click on CMD underneath Program(1) choose Run as administrator. Command Prompt will open up to this path C:\Windows\System32>_ . Type in the commands below press <ENTER> after each line

DISKPART LIST DISK SELECT DISK 0 CLEAN CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SELECT PARTITION 1 FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK EXIT EXIT

   Note

Disk 0 is where your D drive is which is your first hard drive

 

[denneny]

D Drive Format

Finally, got D Drive formatted. That was not smart on my part. When I built PC, I had tech move data & program files to D: so as not to have to reinstall Win 7 from scratch. I moved Programs back over to C: and reinstalled them to get registry right. I moved data (docs, pictures, Data etc) back over to C:. He also moved system partition to D: for some unknown reason.

The computer would not reboot as Sys files had been removed from D: by format process. Thank God for Acronis Recovery disk with bootable media. I have done a recovery which should put D drive back into active status.

I won't try this again and if I ever install an OS upgrade again, it will be a total, fresh, clean install.

Thanks for the attempted help.

Jim Denneny

 

[roboticarm]

...and this beautiful tutorial might help you a bit (though I think you don't need it): http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[denneny]

Clean Install

You are probably correct - clean re-install Win 7. I have a very smart friend taking a crack at it before that step is taken. D Drive had not been re-formatted as I thought. I recovered C Drive and its MBR using Acronis Recovery. Really weird BIOS sees both drives under hard drive but under boot priority it only sees the D Drive and CD/DVD. It will not boot period.

 

[VistaKing]

denneny

Are we reinstalling Windows ?

 

[denneny]

Problem is fixed - sort of. Computer boots. Friend used Windows Repair and got it running without a total re-install.

It is weird because he tells me it wants to boot off D Drive before C Drive will boot. BIOS will not let him boot directly off C MBR.

I guess it has been like this ever since the tech setup my system. If it works I am OK. Anything beats a complete re-install given all the programs I have plus networks etc.

He is going to do some research to see if we can get D Drive out of the boot loop short of a total re-install. We need to make BIOS boot off the C MBR. It is not a simple issue of reordering boot priority.

Jim Denneny

 

[Britton30]

Very odd, Windows will name the currently booted OS drive as C\. You could physically disconnect the D\ and see if you can boot. If it asks to do a startup repair, do it. You may need to run it 3 time to place the bootrec back on the C\
With D\ inactive it shouldn't be booting at all.

 

[denneny]

Thank you so much for your help. You nailed it. My friend did exactly what you suggested and it worked. Disconnected D Drive - Windows Repair established boot link to C Drive. Wiped D Drive clean.

Dodged a bullet thanks to you. I was all set to reinstall Win 7 with all the associated misery until you came along.

Jim

 

[Britton30]

Cool, good to know they got it sorted out.