Hi everyone. I am new to this forum and I have a problem. I have two 40 gig hard drives. I have Windows XP on both drives. The Windows on C drive have a problem and I can't get it to boot, as it hangs up during the initial bootup operation and freezes. The Windows on D Drive are good and that is the drive that I use for all my work. I have all my files on D Drive. I want to format the drive, clear everything off, and use C drive as a place for storing data. Anyone have any magical answers? Thanks

You can switch the jumpers on the drives to make the D drive the master and the C drive the slave... that will then change the drive numbers on them. Then just format the drive that is bad you should be set to go.

Thanks for the info, but the question arises, "How do I reformat the C drive?" I don't know physicallly how to do it!

Two ways to do it. In Windows, open My Computer, right click the C drive, choose Format.

Or click Start and then Run, type in <b>command</b>, in the box that shows up type in <b>format c:</b>

Thanks, Hankster. I thought I had it made this time. I right clicked C in My Computer. Then I clicked format. It gave me a little box. I clicked ok to format the drive. After a few minutes, it came back that Windows was unable to format C Drive. I then tried clicking Run. It said that the command "<b>command</b> was not recognized. So, here I am again. Frustrated!! Thanks.

Doh... leave off the <b></b> stuff... just type command. My mistake... was trying to bold the word command.

Well, Hank, eventually I will make it, I am sure. I just tried the command entry in RUN and got a black box. I typed format c:, and it asked me for volume label. I kept entering names and it kept rejecting them. I then remembered that it was named PRESARIO before, so I entered it and everything was a go (or so I thought). It then told me that there was something in use on it (which I don't know how, since I was in D drive at the time). It asked me if I wanted to proceed and force a format on C. I stated yes and then it told me that it could not format the drive because they couldn't lock the drive. So, back to square one again! I tried the local disk management tree, but when I right clicked the C drive, it did not highlight format. I tried clicking on it, but nothing.

Something must still be on that drive and is being accessed by the computer. You could try booting into Safe Mode before you try the format. Hopefully that will release the locked files.

Well, Hankster, I don't know if I will make it or not! I tried going into the Safe Mode, which had to be in D Drive, because I cannot get into C Drive Safe Mode. Anyway, I tried the Command line, typed in format c:. It asked me the volume label. I typed it in and then it warned me that all data would be lost. I said "Great" Get it on. It began formatting, showing me the percentage done, from 1 to 100%. When completed, I restarted and booted into C Drive. Everything was still there. Don't understand the darn thing. It has a mind of its own. Although, it does boot to an opening screen that is blue with only two icons on it, Internet Exploer and Recycle Bin. In going through START, I can get to My Computer, but it never shows anything when I right click it. The horns of my dilemma are beginning to stick me in the butt!

Looks like this is over my head as I have no idea what the problem is.

Best way to do it would be to disconnect your good drive (the one you want to save the data on) and have just the drive you want to format connected. Then get a Windows 98 boot disk and boot from that floppy and at the prompt type format c: . Be sure that you set the jumpers on the drive to the proper setting which would be MASTER since it should be the only drive connected.

Doing it this way is out of the Windows environmet and you don't have to worry about the drive being locked

RC

Thanks, Roadsplat, but I don't have a floppy drive on my commputer now. I have a Win 98 boot disk, but no drive to put it in. Got any ideas?

Thanks, Roadsplat, but I don't have a floppy drive on my commputer now. I have a Win 98 boot disk, but no drive to put it in. Got any ideas?

Well that's a bummer...would have made things easier. Here is something else you can try. With both drive connected make sure the drive you want to format is connected as the slave drive. What you want to do is to hit F8 before windows starts to load. This will bring up a menu. You should have a choice of booting into "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". Choose that and logon at the screen. It should automatically take you to a command prompt screen.

At the command prompt type: Format (drive letter:) /X

The /X option forces the drive volume to dismount if neccesary. Also there is a space between the : and / of the command above.

Not sure how many partitions your drives have on them but the drive letter you choose should not be C: It will probably be D:, E:, ...... C: will be the drive letter that you are booting from and you can not completely format that while you are booted into windows. Hope this helps

Ray

what no cd-r drive as well, you could make a copy of the boot disk and use it in the cd-rom drive