Formatting your drive C with windows XP...error.....

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|AFTA|Yankee
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Formatting your drive C with windows XP...error.....

Post by |AFTA|Yankee »

When i try to format my drive C w/ XP PRO i keep on getting this mesage that says:
"Format cannot run b/c the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENEDHANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y?N)"
and when i type in "Y" it says something about the drive being locked........ :( :cry:
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Post by Tasiin »

Um, that's because you cannot format the drive while the operating system is running - that would be rather difficult. You need to put in your Windows XP CD, restart the computer, and use Windows Setup to format the drive.
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|AFTA|Yankee
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Post by |AFTA|Yankee »

How do i format ti w/ Windows set up? DO i have to start the computer on the CD? cuz my comp doesn't do that. I can log in and access the disk...can i do it that way?
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Post by Loop_Goose »

If you have a floppy drive, make a boot disk, boot off the floppy, and thenyou can format by typing:

FORMAT C:\ [enter]

It will give a confirmation message, and you press Y for yes.

Note, that to reinstall Windows, you are going to have to boot off the CD, or have access to the CD after booting off a floppy.

If your PC doesnt boot off the CD during startup, you will have to go into the BIOS, look for the setion regarding boot priority, and change it so that the CD drive is listed first.

To get into the BIOS, when your PC is booting up, tap the Del key to enter the BIOS. (its normally the Del key, or it can be F10 or F2. )
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Post by Tasiin »

I've already shown him how to change his boot order, but it doesn't seem like he has a bootable XP CD. He'll have to buy a retail copy of Windows XP if he wants to do a complete format, I think.
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Loop_Goose
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Post by Loop_Goose »

If he makes a Win98 boot disc, He can still boot off a floppy, but it will give the option to include CD-ROM support. Then, he can access the CD drive, and run the setup file.

This website has a lot of useful info on it:

http://www.bootdisk.com/
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Post by Tasiin »

That's not what I mean. The CD he has right now has no boot record, and he can't boot off of it even after setting the CD drive to be the first in the boot order. He has a prebuilt computer, so they likely crippled the XP CD they gave him.
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Post by Glude »

In the Windows CD, there should be an .exe to make a bootable floppy disk.
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Post by SSJBardock »

even if he doesn't have a bootable win xp cd, he should be able to create a
(MS-DOS) boot floppy and format his c:
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Post by Bebiseal »

you can format xp when you are reinstalling it... when you get the oppertunity to select a partition you will be able to delete them and ""format"
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Post by Tasiin »

My point is that he will not be able to re-install Windows after formatting his only drive without a bootable CD.
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Post by Bebiseal »

actually he will be
[TO]Semore
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Post by [TO]Semore »

I use MSDOS.
SSJBardock
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Post by SSJBardock »

he should be able to start the windows installation from the command prompt given by the boot (floppy) disk.
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Post by eXistenZ »

if thats windows xp, he can't start setup from ms-dos i know because i tried..
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