windows cannot format HDD

liquidmonkey

liquidmonkey

Member
hi,
have taken an older HDD and put it into a new computer and went to
format it using disk management (NTFS) but at the end i get an error message
saying the "windows was unable to complete the format" and then says
"the disk in drive E cannot be formatted".
when clicking on the drive in explorer an error comes up saying the
disk is not formatted.
i've tried 3 times to format it, including a quick format and still the same.
this particular HDD had windows on it before but should that really
make a difference?

am using winXP pro SP2
the HDD is an IDE Maxtor 60gig. the jumpers are set to slave.

any help is appreciated and thanks in advance!
 
What are you doing it under??? Computer Management???

Are you accessing any files of the hard drive???
 
hmmm, my brothere had this problem(hes always having trouble with is pc :D) First try setting it to master, or use a different formating program and if all else fails, use a small HDD for the OS, and try using this one for programs. good luck
 
As other's suggested, try booting to another environment. Perhaps even remove the other drive on the channel and set it to master. Also, I'm pretty sure this really only applies to Western Digital, but be sure you have the jumper set correctly. I know some have a Master and Master with Slave present setting. Using the later will cause the drive to malfunction if no slave is present.
 
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