help reformatting hard drive

can someone help as i need some assistance reformatting my hard drive. whe i try it i get the following message: format is in use by another process. format may run if this is dismounted first. all open handles to this volume will be invalid. would you like to force a dismount and then i say yes and it tells me that the drive is locked. the volume is still in use. and it wont go any farther. can someone tell me what this means and how i can get past this so i can continue to reformat my hard drive....

 

Are you trying to format from Windows? You can't. Do you have your OS disc? Insert the disc, re-boot, and follow the prompts.

 

not sure what the first half of the question is but the second part is yes i have an os disc

what i am trying to do is change the os from ppro to home edition. as i had a friend of mine reformat my hard drive and he installed pro instead of home and now i get a constant counterfiet message displayed and i want the original xp home back on this pc

 

also he wont give me the COA so i can validate it. or he wont give up the product key

 

Ok, some tips first. If you install a new OS, you will also need the driver discs or download the drivers after the install. Do you have the driver discs or are you familiar with downloading the drivers you will need?
This is the link to microsoft and the install instructions for XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941
You may want to print them if you are on the PC you are going to do this to.

 

ok i understand that part but i still cant get my pc to reformat.. how do i get it to do that.

 

After you have backed up all your important information, follow these steps to install Windows XP:
1.Start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM. To do this, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
2.When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3.At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.
4.Read the End-User License Agreement, and then press F8.
5.Follow the instructions on the screen to select and format a partition where you want to install Windows XP.
6.Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Windows XP Setup.

EDIT: When you follow these steps you will be asked to format and the software will do it for you.

 

i dont mean to be a pain but it wont let me boot from a cd is there a way that i can change that?

 

There should be an option in your BIOS settings that allow you to specify which device you want to boot from, ie: hard drive, cd rom, etc.

Ed-A

:major

 

Yes, like Ed-A said.. restart your computer and at the black screen it should give you an option, mine is pressing F12 and then choosing cd-rom

 

changed it and it still does not boot from a cd.. now what?? this is sooooooooooo frustrating!confused confused confused

 

Can you play a cd or can you get any other software cd's to get started on that drive?

 

yes. i can even open the xp home edition cd but when i go to try to install it says i have a newer copy and i cant proceed

 

I'm sorry, cmozaeko. We have just reached my limit of knowledge on this. I had the same problem when I tried to re-install my OS. I am not sure how I got it to format. I think I went into the repair section of the XP disc and was able to get into Dos from there. This may be easier.
To create an MS-DOS startup disk
The MS-DOS startup disk you create will allow you to boot into MS-DOS.

1. Insert a floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive.
2. Open My Computer, and then click the floppy disk drive to select it.
3. On the File menu, point to the name of the floppy drive, and then click Format.
4. Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
5. Click Start. Important Creating an MS-DOS startup disk erases all information on the floppy disk. Notes:

• To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
• The MS-DOS startup disk only allows the system to boot into an MS-DOS prompt. The disk contains no additional tools.

Once you have the disc made, re-boot with the floppy disc in (you may have to re-set your boot options)
Once you get to DOS type, FORMAT C: That will start it going.
Once you've foratted the HD, re-boot with your XP disc and follow the prompts to install the OS

 

OK THANKS!!:cool FOR ALL YOU HELP

 

No problem

 

I'm off to bed...so if you need more help tonight, post and someone might get to you ...otherwise see you tomorrow and good luck

 

Have you or someone else upgraded or perhaps put Windows Xp Pro on your hard Drive? That is apparently what it is telling you. Another way to do this is to
Low level format the Hard drive itself. This would require a diagnostic or low level
format from the Hard drive manufacturer. You would then use it to low level format the Hard Drive. then when you try to boot from the Cd Rom, it should boot o.k. as there would not be a operating system or any thing on the Hard drive and then you could follow previously posted instructions on "Dos level" formatting from the Windows Cd (ie: Dos or NTFS) probably best to NTFS format it, since you would now be doing a "clean" Windows install, not a install over a different version. If there is anything else I can do to help, let me know.

Once you have sone these things a couple of times, it will be easy the next time, just takes a little bit of time.

Ed-A

 

Another way may be to use the dos command Fdisk to delete the Windows partition you now have on the hard drive, if you can do this, you should be able to boot from your Windows Cd Rom as it will no longer recognise that Windows is on your Hard Drive and then you can just do a NTFS or DOS format from your Windows Cd in preparation of re installing Windows. The Fdisk.exe I believe should be on your Hard Drive under the C:\windows\command directory> you may want to copy it to a bootable floppy disk, re boot from the floppy drive and then run it from there. Be sure to also use it to delete the "active" partition on the hard drive as well as any "logical" drives. Logical drives came about as Hard drive used to be partitoned into C,D,E, etc logical drives as we were once limited to 32mb partitons in the bad old days, that is right, 32 mega byte, not gigabyte.

It still sounds like someone has upgraded Windows on your hard drive past the Win home ed version.
There is a utility that will come up on your Windows Cd once booted (after either low level formating or using Fdisk or a partition program to delete the active partition currently on the hard drive) asking if you want to create a partition on your hard drive (just accept the default size it shows) and to activate it (If it is not active, the hard drive will not boot even though you have re installed Windows on it) and then the Cd rom will continue installing your version of Windows.

Ed

 

Now that I am on my soapbox, let me tell you about Windows, I was once at a computer show and Bill Gates was there (along with others) demonstrating Windows 3.1. While showing off Windows, Suddenly there was the dreaded blue screen of death and Windows was horribly locked, Someone asked Bill Gates why that had happened and he replied well, just because it sometimes does.

Bill Gates solution was to reboot.

Someone once equated Windoze to a modern airline, you get to the terminal, the ticket personnel are helpful and full of curtesy, you get to the boarding area and same thing happens, you board the airplane, it taxi's smoothly down the runway, surges into the air with a surge of power and climbs swiftly to 30,000 ft, where without warning the plane explodes. That is Windows (and Vista)

Everyone has a horror story regarding Windows (all flavors) and a clean install should be done once every six months. I can hear the groan and peple saying I don't have to or want to do that.

Don't, that is your choice, but eventually your installation of Windows will be so sluggish, you will be throwing things at the monitor, and one morning when you try to boot your PC, it simply won't boot. And the first thing that will hit your mind is I haven't changed anything, nor deleted anything, nor added any new hardware or software, why is it doing this.

Because that is just the nature of Windows (and Vista). Why do you think Microsoft keeps putting out so many fixes over the lifetime of a operating system?

Actually every three months, a new re install is not unheard of. Now the wailing and gnashing of teeth. And voices saying he is nuts. If your installation of Windows lasts a year or longer, then I say you either do not use you PC much or possibly never even turn it on very often. (mine are on 24 and 7).

Everyone have a nice day and no planes exploding.

Ed-A