Hard Drive Formatting

[Evaluate]

So here's the situation. I've had my current computer for a little over a year, when i got it I wasn't quite as knowledgeable about computers, and just installed everything one one mass partition. Since then I've taken classes (in high school, so it's not high end stuff) that have taught me about partitioning and stuff to help organize my drives and such.

 

The issue I've run into today is this. I've got 2 hard drives, one 500gb and one 1tb. The 500gb is the one i initially purchased, so it has all my data, including my OS files. My new tb drive is the one I want to make my primary drive, and I'm going to use my 500gb one for music, movies, etc. So today I went about partitioning, my tb drive is all set and I have a copy of Vista on that as well, so essentially I have a dual boot system at the moment. No need for a dual boot of 2 Vistas though, plus as was my intention from the beginning, I want to wipe my old drive. However, I've been unable to as of yet.

 

I'm not looking to totally wipe my drive beyond recovery because I'm not planning on throwing it out, so I figured I'd just reformat it and it'd be good. I haven't had any success as of yet. I've tried through Disk Management, which is where I created all my partitions and such, but when I try to format the C: drive it won't let me, as the option is grayed out. I've also tried formatting through the Command Line, but it says the drive isn't allowed to be formatted (not from lack of permission, I am on the admin account).

 

Is is because Vista is still active of something or am I just missing something simple? Like I said, I don't want to completely wipe it, like using dban or something, just clean it all out so I can use the space for other things.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[Hobgoblinpie]

It sounds like you're using the 500GB one as the boot drive (in my opinion). You'd need to boot from the 1TB drive and then format that drive.

[Captainkidd]

Well first off I'd go out and buy Windows 7 before I'd buy a 1TB hard drive. However, you need to install Vista on the 1TB hard drive, boot from that, copy your files from the 500GB on to the 1TB and then reformat the 500GB.

 

 

 

Oh and "wiping" the drive is the same as reformatting, they both render the information that was once on the drive unrecognizable although there are programs that can still recover the data off of it even after being "wiped" or reformatted.

 

 

 

 

~ Captainkidd

[Sbrideau]

Well first off I'd go out and buy Windows 7 before I'd buy a 1TB hard drive.

 

There's nothing wrong with Vista :rolleyes:

 

About the hard drives, I'm going to go with the fact that you're still booting from the old drive instead of the 1TB, as others have said. Try to boot from the 1TB and see if you can then format the 500GB.

[Evaluate]

I don't think I am, as when I boot it boots into the fresh install of Vista instead of the one with all my old files. Plus in Disk management it lists my S: drive (one that holds the fresh install) as Boot, Active, Crash Dump, and Primary, and the C: drive (one I want to wipe) is listed as System, Page File, Active, and Primary. I think I'm booting to the S: drive...but I'm not sure. So if this helps, anything you can give me is useful. Thanks in advance.

 

EDIT: Just read up a bit more, I am booting from my 500gb drive cuz that's where all my BOOTMGR and stuff is, but then it goes to the fresh install on my S: drive. If you guys have any suggestions on what I should do about this (to make it boot from just one drive and have the other for storage), I'm all ears.

[indy500fan]

Personally I like to keep smaller drives as my boot drives, and just not put any data on them (like movies or music). No help for you there, just wanted to comment :smile: .

[Captainkidd]

I'm curious why you want to install your OS on the 1TB and put all your files on the 500GB. You could install hundreds of programs and never fill up the 500GB hard drive.

 

I'm assuming you've transferred all your data off the 500GB on to the 1TB. How about taking the 500GB hard drive out of the computer and put the 1TB in the 500GB's spot, then start up the system, put in the 500GB one where the 1TB was and then format it.

 

 

 

~ Captainkidd

[Evaluate]

I've got it all sorted out now, a little different than I originally had planned, but functional nonetheless. Thank you all for your input.