>>>I have Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro installed
Start > Run msconfig
Click the Startup tab
deselect anything that seems to be associated with Norton
Click on the Service tab and to the same.
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Question
Error: Windows Cannot Format This Drive
I'm running WinXP Pro, SP1. I have a two drive system.
My scratch/capture drive needs to be cleared and formatted to NTFS (The OS is on the other drive). When I attempt to format it, I get the error "Windows Cannot Format This Drive. Quit any disk utilities using this drive...etc". I have Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro installed, however, and I'm fairly certain that's what's causing the trouble here. Problem is, I can't kill the norton processes in Task Manager.
What do I do here?
Thanks much.
Bill
:-=>
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Answers
Or you can do this
Reformatting or repartitioning a disk deletes all of the data that is on the disk, so make sure that you back up your data before you reformat the disk.
Start the computer by using the Windows XP CD-ROM or the Startup disks.
When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press F10.
In Recovery Console, specify the appropriate installation, and then log on by using your Administrator password.
Type map , and then press ENTER.
Note the drive that you want to reformat. The drive letters may be different in Recovery Console from what they are in Windows XP.
Type format x: /fs:fat32 or format x: /fs:ntfs, where x is the letter of the drive that you want to format and FAT32/NTFS is the file system that you want to use, and then press ENTER.
Type y and then press ENTER to confirm your choice. When the formatting process is finished, type exit and then press ENTER, to restart the computer.
And make sure you format the correct drive and not the one that XP is on.
Bigpaws,
>> I have Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro installed, however, and I'm fairly certain that's what's
>> causing the trouble here. Problem is, I can't kill the norton processes in Task Manager.
Norton provide a pretty good protection of your system until you want to format your computer for write to your registry. You can disable all the protections by going to the Option menu of each Norton program (anti-virus, utility, firewall, cleansweep, etc) and disable all the autoprotect features. Reboot the system. Now you can format the drive the way you like it.
Best wishes, war1
Not so fast & Not so simple.
I tried all the above methods. The only thing that worked was to delete the primary partition by running FDisk on the Hard Drive in DOS, using a Win98 boot disk, and then running Windows Format immediately after rebooting into WinXP. Disabling all my Norton (Symantec) software did nothing, booting in Safe Mode didn't work. Booting from the WinXP (Home Edition) CD was a waste of time as well, as there was no option for format given by the CD anywhere that I could find, including installing the WinXP "Tools" to the Hard Drive.
My theory is that it is all about WinXP and nothing else. I suspect it (the unwillingness to format) only applies to NTFS drives. After I ran FDISK on my Hard Drive, I booted normally and ran Norton Disk Doctor to verify the integrity of the surface. It passed, but Norton then installed a file named "Recycler" which I can not delete now, no matter what I try. I can't even run format from windows again, unless I want to delete the partition (again) and then reformat.
Personally I think all of this is silly, spinning around trying to second-guess what a work around solution to a problem might be while ignoring the glaringly obvious fact that placing the word "format" as an option in a windows environment generally means that one should have the ability to actually FORMAT a hard drive. (A check of Microsoft's "knowledge base" resulted in a fat goose-egg for an official acknowldegement of this serious problem, much less a practical solution to it that the above-average computer user can implement.
And, as this is (supposedly) an "expert" forum, I also resent the placement of this advice high on the Google search, while the "experts" (and their "accepted" answers) fail to acknowledge the serious nature of this problem and the fact that it's inadequate solution is well-beyond the abilities of even the most accomplished of computer users.
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by: CrazyOnePosted on 2003-05-28 at 20:12:49ID: 8602998
First off close all explorer and internet explorer windows then open the Disk Manager Start > Run devmgmt.msc right click on the drive in question and then select format.
The Crazy one