windows 7 drive formatting help

[krypton]

hi avast

i seen many times that when i try to format my whole hard disk during windows set, then i am not able to format it. bcoz when i click more options button in c drive it also let me click on format button. but when  i click on  d , e, and f drive. i can see more options button but i cant click on format button bcoz i cant see cursor finger on it. why i face this problem?

[Eddy]

Without knowing more I can only say this at the moment:

- You can't format a drive that is in use.
- Before you can format a partition/drive, you need to partition it.

ps:
I see you have 512Mb ram in the desktop. I suggest you put in 2Gb total (which is likely the maximum that is supported by the motherboard)

[krypton]

Without knowing more I can only say this at the moment:

- You can't format a drive that is in use.
- Before you can format a partition/drive, you need to partition it.

ps:
I see you have 512Mb ram in the desktop. I suggest you put in 2Gb total (which is likely the maximum that is supported by the motherboard)

as u said i need to make partition, but also i cant click on delete button in order to make partition. i m using 2gb ram. and 500gb hd

[Eddy]

Try this:
Put in the windows cd and boot from it.
See if you can delete/create/format through the setup.
Do not ofcourse delete C (unless you want to do a fresh installation of XP)

If you want to do a fresh installation:
- Partition/format as you wish
- Install XP
- Install system drivers (check device manager and make sure there are no more exclamation marks or red crosses)
- Install the drivers for your devices (printer, monitor, keyboard, scanner etc)
- Install avast
Do all the above before(!) going online.

- Install the applications you are normally using. (text editor, music application or whatever it is you want to use)
- Configure everything to your needs/wishes
- Create a drive image (very handy if you need to reinstall again and much faster then a fresh installation)

[timcan]

Hi, were the partitions d,e,& f made by you or are they factory partitions ? Just thinking they might be recovery and/or system utilities partitions the reason you can't format them.

[krypton]

Hi, were the partitions d,e,& f made by you or are they factory partitions ? Just thinking they might be recovery and/or system utilities partitions the reason you can't format them.

no they not factory partitions. they are made by me before.i put xp cd instead of windows 7. bcoz i cant format or delete partitions. when i tried to delete partiotions with windows xp. it worked and i maked new partitions. why this happens that i cant delete or format with windows 7 sometimes?

[Eddy]

Windows 7 works entirely different then XP.
My guess is it has to do with permissions for the account that you are using.

[timcan]

A bootable partitioning tool such as gparted or similar would be your best solution. hope that helps.