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    My System will not format.

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by MattHK, Jan 10, 2013.

  1. MattHK

    MattHK Newbie

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    I have a corrupted HD on my laptop that needs to be reformatted. It currently has two partitions, one created by the malware and the one I am in, which I have cleaned. I boot from my W7 repair disc, go to the command prompt and enter the command to format C (format c:/fs:NTFS) and it asks for the volume label, which I know since I got it from the same command prompt. The label is 'New', by the way. Short of a sledge hammer and buying a new drive, has anyone ever encountered this and can you tell me how to get around this? Thank you
     
    MattHK, Jan 10, 2013
    #1
  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    No utility I know will allow you to format the C: drive when it is the drive that was booted from.

    You must be confusing the drive/partition you really want to format (it cannot be the C: partition).

    No matter what drive letter is used to install a Windows installation to - once that partition is booted it is renamed (by Windows) to be the C: drive partition.

    Check your drive letters carefully...
     
    tilleroftheearth, Jan 10, 2013
    #2
  3. MrDJ

    MrDJ Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    MrDJ, Jan 10, 2013
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  4. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    You need to reformat from the Windows Installation disc in order to format the boot partition. For some reason, the Windows repair disc doesn't like doing that. I think the repair disc still uses some of the basic elements of the OS partition even when you boot from the disc. DBAN has worked for me in the past. The simplest way (if you have a spare system) is to remove the corrupted hard drive and plug it into another system. Then use disk management service to reformat and partitions your drive again. Another free tool is Easeus partition manager.
     
    radji, Jan 11, 2013
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  5. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    Great suggestions, If you want to leave the drive in place D/L Ubuntu from another machine, create a USB or CD, then boot from it and you will easily be able to format any partitions. This media is also very useful for troubleshooting other issues. Download Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu
     
    JOSEA, Jan 11, 2013
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