How to erase & format spare hard drive with an OS installed on it

[shimmy2000]

Bought a Dell desktop that has windows 10 installed. I installed a spare 150GB HD that had windows XP installed on it. I want to delete the OS and the Recovery as well. I used disk management, I deleted both volumes, added new volume, chose format in NTFS and error popped up said it couldn't be formatted and now its listed as a RAW Drive. Did i do it wrong? Any help will be great

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... basically Windows doesn't/can't delete it self... so you should use a bootable DOS utility... basically all you need to do is delete all the "Partitions" on the drive, to remove any previous file/OS information and locations used by that partition, this is the fastest way for me.

Typically I will just Boot with some Windows OS install media... choose "custom" install... and when you get to the screen that shows the HD and asks for where to install it... there will be a "drive tools/options" app below... you can use that to remove/delete the existing partitions on the drive... after the partitions are removed... just exit the OS install media. B )

Use your current OS (disk management) to re-partition it- format it and then "mark partition(s) active" for OS use. B )

 

[shimmy2000]

Hello... basically Windows doesn't/can't delete it self... so you should use a bootable DOS utility... basically all you need to do is delete all the "Partitions" on the drive, to remove any previous file/OS information and locations used by that partition, this is the fastest way for me.

Typically I will just Boot with some Windows OS install media... choose "custom" install... and when you get to the screen that shows the HD and asks for where to install it... there will be a "drive tools/options" app below... you can use that to remove the existing partitions on the drive... after removed... just exit the OS install media. B )

I deleted the partitions. Never used a bootable DOS utility. Boot with some windows OS install media doesnt mean anything to me either lol

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Yes DOS mode "OLD school" there are many drive/memory/test/install utilities out there that run in DOS mode... outside the Win OS environment... Like I said Windows will not delete it's self and all the "OLD OS" hidden folders and files.

Making something "Bootable" means "DOS files and information" is added to the USB stick/CD/DVD/Floppy And the MB will look at it and let you read/write and run APPS from it.

You can find these utilities publicly and also DL them from the Hardrive makers themselves... like I mentioned, Any Windows install media is already 'bootable" and runs in DOS mode, and also includes the "Tool" that you need.

 

[shimmy2000]

Hello... Yes DOS mode "OLD school" there are many drive/memory/test/install utilities out there that run in DOS mode... outside the Win OS environment... Like I said Windows will not delete it's self and all the "OLD OS" hidden folders and files.

You can find these utilities publicly and also DL them from the Hardrive makers themselves... like I mentioned, Any windows install media is already 'bootable" and runs in DOS mode, and also includes the "Tool" that you need.

So the features in Windows 10 can't delete an OS that's installed on a 2nd HD? Thought Disk Management offered that.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... It like telling something or someone to kill it's self... the OS has built in safe guards and Thus you need to do it outside of the OS. B / Disk management is great for creating but not for destroying previous OS installs... if it was just a DATA drive Yes... but even then the OS can put hidden files on it that will never be removed... such as Temp, Pagefile.sys or hibernation storage areas. If you don't remove these too, you will never get full access of the drive or cause other disk accessing problems. And that's what you encountered B D

In a computer shop they have pre-made USB2 bootable drive utilities to do this fast with... I at home just use any Windows install media when I need to do this.

And since you have "pre-installed OS" you may not have install/recovery media made for your personal use or protection B / I suggest you look into making these items, as the day your OS/drive crashes... you will be looking for these items, and you won't have them. B )

 

[shimmy2000]

Hello... It like telling something or some one to kill it's self... the OS has built in safe guards and Thus you need to do it outside of the OS. B / Disk management is great for creating but not for destroying previous OS installs... if it was just a DATA drive yes... but even then the OS can put hidden files on it that will never be removed... such as Pagefile.sys or hibernation storage areas.

In a computer shop they have pre-made bootable drive utilities to do this fast with... I at home just use a Windows install media when I need to do this.

And since you have "pre-installed OS" you may not have install/recovery media made for your personal use or protection B / I suggest you look into making these items, as the day your OS/drive crashes... you will be looking for these items, and you won't have them. B )

Understandable! Thanks a lot for the help.