problems formatting external hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nikko
  • Start date Start date
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Nikko

I have a Maxtor 120 GB external hard drive that I backed up some files on. I
want to delete everything that's on there, though, and start my back-up from
scratch. There are a few files that it just won't let me delete, for some
reason. Every time I try to delete the folder, it says "such and such file
cannot be deleted. Please make sure the path and/or filename is correct".
What the hell? I tried to delete each file individually, but no go.
Finally, I was prepared to just reformat the drive but when I tried, I got
the following message: "Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk
utilities or other programs that are using this drive and make sure that no
window is displaying the contents of the drive. then try formatting again."
Any idea what gives? I don't know what program could be using this drive and
no other windows were open. I even rebooted several times but to no avail.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Is your drive NTSF? If so, refere to the format instructions about
formating the disk in NTSF.

In the worse case, take the drive out, and put in as a second drive in
another machine. Then you can delete the partition, and rebuild the drive
from there.


Below are the commands for Format:
__________________________________________________

C:\Documents and Settings\Gerald Greenberg>format /?
Formats a disk for use with Windows XP.

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q]
FORMAT volume [/Q]

volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:filesystem Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, or
NTFS).
/V:label Specifies the volume label.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/C NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be
compressed
by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All
opened
handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default
settings
are strongly recommended for general use.
NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).

Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
following restrictions on the number of clusters on a
volume:

FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918

Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
cluster size.

NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit
sizes
above 4096.

/F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track.

___________________________________________________________

Jerry G.
======
 
I have a Maxtor 120 GB external hard drive that I backed up some files on.
I
want to delete everything that's on there, though, and start my back-up from
scratch. There are a few files that it just won't let me delete, for some
reason. Every time I try to delete the folder, it says "such and such file
cannot be deleted. Please make sure the path and/or filename is correct".
Click to expand...

Try something like partition magic to reformat the drive.. (or anything
other than format in windows)
You could even try just formatting from DOS and see if it works..

Regards,
Chris
 
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