XP Pro question for formatting external drives
 

All,
I picked up a Belkin USB 2.0 hard drive case yesterday for some external/mobile storage.
I removed a drive from my old dual CPU Win2k server before I sold it a few months back.
The drive had some files/pictures/etc stored on it that I never had the chance to transfer over to my editing box before selling.
I spent last night going through the stuff I actually wanted to keep, transferred it, and deleted the rest of the junk.
On my editing box that I'm attaching this to, I'm running XP Pro.

Here is my question:
I wanted to format this drive to NTFS since it was originally formatted as a FAT32 under Win2K.
Since it's USB, I'm having this problem.....
If try to format it with the DOS command: /FS:NTFS it comes back with a warning that it "drive is in use, can't format"
If I "dismount" the drive as per it's request (since it's still in use), now you can't get a command prompt to actually format the drive.

Since XP is still relatively new, this is the 1st time I've run across the issue(or had the need).
I did a quick search in the help section to no avail. I haven't spent the time formally searching yet, and thought I would pose the question here.

Any quick tips out there?

ADMINISTRATOR
 

Have you tried formatting the drive going through, CONTROL PANEL - - > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS - - > DISK MANAGER

Forgive me if I'm a little off, I'm writing this at another computer other than my own.

Your should be able to mount the drive there and format to NTFS. If you don't see it, there is another problem.

Keep me posted...

I'll write more when I get to my system...

Cheers!

Derrick

That sounds correct
 

I'll give it a shot when I get home tonight, and let you know.

Just right-click on the drive and choose format. Dos format is
too old for such new technologies. Just keep in in the Windows
XP interface. That should work.... If it needs, it should also
dismount the volume if that is needed.

Leave it to a tech... ala Moi to find a more complicated way.

FYI - - > STARTMENU --> CONTROL PANEL --> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS --> COMPUTER MANAGEMENT --> DISK MANAGEMENT

Or...

Try what Rob L. said above... Via My COMPUTAH.

Old Habits and I'm not that old...

Cheers!

Either way should work, given, you can see the drive.

Till then...

Derrick

correct
 

Start
Click my computer
Right click the drive you want to format
Click format
Change file system to NTFS
Click Start
(no need to dismount)
Wa-la....your golden

Thanks everyone!