formatting backup drive

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I have a problem here. I have been trying to format my backup drive but have not had success. Every time I try, I get a message saying something about other programs or utilities using this drive and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. There is a folder on there called System Volume Information which I can't do anything with it, I can't open, can't rename it, can't move it to another drive, nothing but the folder is empty. The exact same folder is on the windows xp drive which is also empty. Could that have something to do with it?

This is really making me mad because it seems like every time I try to format a hard drive on every computer I have had, I get that message. There is no windows on the drive that I am trying to format.

Just thought of something, I have all my videos stored on this drive and I use WMP 11 to manage them. Could that be the reason?
 
If you have some kind of DOS boot disk, you can boot to it and format the drive using the command- FORMAT ?:/

? being the letter of the drive you wish to format.
Dont hold me responsible for the loss of any data! lol

Adam
 
No I don't have a DOS boot disk. Can I format through command prompt?

Okay, I am trying to use Command Prompt to format it. It says format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if this volume is dismounted first. All opened handles to this volume would then be invalid. Then it asks me if I would like to force a dismount. Should I force a dismount or will mess the drive up somehow?
 
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Can someone help me out? I really need to get this drive formatted.

Is there anyway I can tell what is programs or utilities are using the drive? When I try to format through Disk Management, it says the Primary partition is in use.
 
I didn't think about that. Could you tell me how to boot up in safe mode? For some reason I can't remember.
 
Okay I got the drive formatted in safe mode. Thanks for all the help, guys.

I just tried to format the drive in normal mode and still get the same problem. Why is it doing this?

Also, there is 70mb of space being used. Is that the partition?

Before I formatted the drive, there were two folders in there. Now after I did a full format, the two folders are in there again. One on them is Recycler and the other is System Volume Information which I can't open or anything. What is the deal with these two folders?
 
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