formating a windows xp drive

hey
In the past i have been able to format a drive with a dos prompt. It seems I can not lock my drive in order to do this with xp. Is there still an option for a startup disk? If not, how do I get around this issue. I have a slave drive id like to set up as well. I also tried to run xp off the slave and format the main drive, but they are both named C: so that odviously didnt work. I guess it would be easiest to erase xp from the main drive while working off the the slave. Is it easier to do that if i rename the main drive.....say "X"" and rebooot with the main drive as my slave? If so...how do I rename a drive?

 

Not sure what you want,so some Q's?

Are you trying to format/wipe the partition where xp is installed?
Is there a paging file on that partition?
And why do you want to format it?

 

okay, ill start from the top.

I had a worm virus that quickly made alot more worms. I got a program to lacate them and remove them from my hard drive but now it runs kinda sloppy. better than before but still crappy. To work around this problem, I plugged in my old hard drive and ran off it for a while. the problem I have with my old hard drive is its size. Its only an 8gig. so I cant load all the game programs id like to. So id like to just format my 40gig hard drive and start fresh. I understand Im loosing all the info on that drive and I have backed up what I want to save. The rest is just junk and game softwhere. No big deal to re-install.

I just need step by step instructions to do so. both drives are called C: drives , so I cant run both at the same time. What Id like to do is change the name of my 40gig hard drive to somthing else..."x". Then install a second drive (which would be "X") on the OS on my 8gig drive( C: drive). That way "x"' can just formated while running off my C: drive.
I know lots of people to say use this as a last resort. Id rather just fix it once and for all and not spend the next month trying to figure it out.

 

If you are planning to install xp on the drive,xp cd will format it for you.

 

If you are planning to use the small disk for the os.
Make sure the new disk is detected by the os.

 

I tried the Xp disk. It only lets me install xp. I tried to overwrite it, but that didnt work either.

 

You have to delete the partition.
And create partition after that.

 

Very true!
you will need to enter the size of the new partition, then can do the same with the leftover amount of drive space.
Another way, is to download free utility from the HDD ,manufacture that will format & partition, Many of those utilities are avaible on MG front page.

What brand HDD do you have? can point you that direction.
Either way will work!

 

done.
although for some reason i still have a worm on my comp that sends pop ups telling me to go to a websight and get a new protection download issued by microsoft. The web sight doesnt start with www.msn or any other word even closley related to microsoft, so I stay away.
seems kinda strange since I just formated. I installed mozilla Firefox and it takes care of the problem while browsing the internet, but it pops up every time I load an Explorer window. any ideah why this would still be on my drive after a format?