I cloned my SSD, but now my HDD won't format

[matpaget]

I recently bought an SSD and cloned my HDD to it. Once this was complete, I turned off my PC and unplugged the HDD. I restarted with only the SSD plugged in, and everything worked fine. Then I plugged in my HDD and ran into some issues with the boot order. Eventually, I got everything sorted: my SSD is now the boot drive. The Windows logo is on the SSD's icon in This PC > Devices and drives; I'm not sure if this is helpful or useful in any way, but I thought I'd mention this just in case.

Now I want to format my HDD and use it for storage. However, when I try to format it in Disk Management, "Format" is greyed out. I tried formatting it by right-clicking the drive and selecting "Format," but I get this message:

"The drive is in use. Another program or process is using this drive. Do you want to format it anyway?"

I hit yes and then this pops up:

"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again."

I've tried looking for answers but can't seem to find one specific to my situation. I'm hopeful someone can help me figure this out.

UPDATE: I wanted to add an update while my HDD was unplugged from my PC. I noticed in the SSD drive and HDD drive that some folders were all caps instead of sentence case. Also, there were some additional $ folders in the SSD. Again, I just want to note that I'm typing this out on my PC with nothing but my SSD plugged in. Hope this helps!

 

[alexoiu]

Try formatting it in Windows install, SSD disconnected.

 

[matpaget]

Try formatting it in Windows install, SSD disconnected.

So I should try resetting Windows 10 from the Recovery options menu with only my HDD attached?

 

[alexoiu]

Connecting a bootable USB drive with Windows kit on it, starting installing Windows, only HDD installed and, when asked where to install Windows, formatting the HDD. Then cancelling the installation.

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

This is likely easily fixable, but just to verify...picture please.

 

[matpaget]

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

This is likely easily fixable, but just to verify...picture please.

Here you go. Thanks for the help!

https://imgur.com/a/HVDGU8b

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

This is likely easily fixable, but just to verify...picture please.

Here you go. Thanks for the help!

https://imgur.com/a/HVDGU8b

1. The system works just fine with the SSD alone, correct?
2. And there is nothing on the old HDD you still need, correct?

If so, reconnect both drives.
Boot up, ensuring it is actually booting from the SSD.
Then, to fully wipe the HDD, the commandline function diskpart, and the clean command.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005929en
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10

 

[matpaget]

Please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

This is likely easily fixable, but just to verify...picture please.

Here you go. Thanks for the help!

https://imgur.com/a/HVDGU8b

1. The system works just fine with the SSD alone, correct?
2. And there is nothing on the old HDD you still need, correct?

If so, reconnect both drives.
Boot up, ensuring it is actually booting from the SSD.
Then, to fully wipe the HDD, the commandline function diskpart, and the clean command.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005929en
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10

I got a virtual disk error, saying "Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume."

I was wondering something. This HDD is a hybrid solid state drive, and it's almost 5 years old. Its performance has been quite poor in recent months. Could I just buy a new HDD and install that with no problems, forgetting all about this current HDD? Again, I'm able to boot up, log in, and play games + browse Chrome + post here with just my SSD plugged in, so I should be fine, right?

 

[USAFRet]

I got a virtual disk error, saying "Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume."

I was wondering something. This HDD is a hybrid solid state drive, and it's almost 5 years old. Its performance has been quite poor in recent months. Could I just buy a new HDD and install that with no problems, forgetting all about this current HDD? Again, I'm able to boot up, log in, and play games + browse Chrome + post here with just my SSD plugged in, so I should be fine, right?

That message means that it was still trying to boot from the HDD, at least the small boot partition.
Or the pagefile lives on that drive.

Yes, you can simply put in a new drive and forget about this faulty one.
Fridge magnet donor.

 

[matpaget]

I got a virtual disk error, saying "Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume."

I was wondering something. This HDD is a hybrid solid state drive, and it's almost 5 years old. Its performance has been quite poor in recent months. Could I just buy a new HDD and install that with no problems, forgetting all about this current HDD? Again, I'm able to boot up, log in, and play games + browse Chrome + post here with just my SSD plugged in, so I should be fine, right?

That message means that it was still trying to boot from the HDD, at least the small boot partition.
Or the pagefile lives on that drive.

Yes, you can simply put in a new drive and forget about this faulty one.
Fridge magnet donor.

Awesome! Thank you so much.