I need help formatting my hard drive

[MeAndTeslaHoldHands]

So here's the deal, I just got a new SSD and I wanted to make it my boot drive so I migrated everything from my hard drive to it. When I boot up the hard drive shows 103gb while my SSD shows 97gb. When I take out the hard drive and boot only with the SSD in my system it shows 103gb.

Now, I'm trying to format my hard drive so that my windows OS is on the SSD while everything in storage is on the hard drive, BUT whenever I try to format my hard drive, it says that the drive is in use and that I can't.

Any help is appreciated, thanks guys!

p.s. here's the guide i tried to use to move everything to my SSD
http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there.

This guide is actually pretty good. Did you disconnect the the HDD from the motherboard before you booted to Windows from the SSD for the first time? If not, sometimes the system partition's info can be split in someway between the HDD's and the SSD's system partitions and conflicts may arise (this might be one of the reasons, which might be the cause for the "drive is in use" message). Try booting from the SSD with the HDD disconnected from the computer to see if everything's OK and if it is running fine, then we'll try to figure out something else. But if not, you may need to migrate the OS again.
And I know this goes without saying but I just want to add, just in case you haven't done it yet - please backup your data first.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[CompGee]

Do you have any blank DVD's that you can use? If so, in Windows, go to this link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/dban-2.2.8/dban-2.2.8_i586.iso/download

It will download a DBAN ISO. Burn it to a blank DVD by right-clicking on the ISO file and clicking "Burn to Disc". Choose the DVD drive that the DVD is in and check "Verify disc after burning" and click Burn. Once it is done, close the tray that comes out of the drive when the burn is done. Power off the computer and UNPLUG THE SSD AND ALL OTHER INSTALLED HDD'S EXCEPT FOR THE ONE TO BE WIPED!! When done, start the computer back up and set the DVD drive to boot first. Select the HDD to be wiped and wipe it with a quick wipe, set to 2 rounds. Let it wipe and when it is done, power down the computer and plug everything else back in. Start the computer up, and set the SSD to boot first. EJECT THE DBAN DVD BEFORE RESTARTING!!!! Restart when the SSD is set to boot first and I hope that works!

 

[Calculagator]

Could be a number of issues. The easiest one to check is whether you have any file explorer windows open when you try to format. If you are browsing the drive, windows considers it to be "in use" and won't format it. Close the windows before trying to format.
It could also be that when you boot with the drive installed, it is using a bootloader on the drive. You could also have software that is using the disk. If you attach the drive via usb or a dock after booting, it could take care of these issues. You might also try setting the drive to "offline" using the disk management section of the computer management control panel.

 

[MeAndTeslaHoldHands]

okokokokok so, to respond to the most recent answers...

Boogieman_WD: yes I have done a back up, (thank you for asking) also I have booted with just my SSD connected to my system so the OS and everything works just fine without the hard drive. When I do, the SSD will show the full 103gb on it, but when the hard drive is connected along with the SSD, the SSD will show only 97gb. So yeah.

CompGee: With the changing times, I do not have a CD drive. I booted my widows OS from a flash drive when I first built it. Thanks for the response though

Calculagator: Hmm. That is very interesting. I will try and double check if I'm still doing anything along these lines. I will update you as soon as I get home from work. Thanks so much for the response!

 

[CompGee]

okokokokok so, to respond to the most recent answers...

Boogieman_WD: yes I have done a back up, (thank you for asking) also I have booted with just my SSD connected to my system so the OS and everything works just fine without the hard drive. When I do, the SSD will show the full 103gb on it, but when the hard drive is connected along with the SSD, the SSD will show only 97gb. So yeah.

CompGee: With the changing times, I do not have a CD drive. I booted my widows OS from a flash drive when I first built it. Thanks for the response though

Calculagator: Hmm. That is very interesting. I will try and double check if I'm still doing anything along these lines. I will update you as soon as I get home from work. Thanks so much for the response!

Here is a black ASUS:

http://tinyurl.com/px9xwjc

 

[MeAndTeslaHoldHands]

So here's how everything ended up...

I decided the extra 90 gb of spare storage doesn't really take that much space on my 1tb hdd, so I just scratched the entire plan to format my drive since I couldn't figure it out. 😛

Thanks so much to everyone who commented to help me!

 

[CompGee]

You're welcome!

 

[Novato15]

Hey there.

This guide is actually pretty good. Did you disconnect the the HDD from the motherboard before you booted to Windows from the SSD for the first time? If not, sometimes the system partition's info can be split in someway between the HDD's and the SSD's system partitions and conflicts may arise (this might be one of the reasons, which might be the cause for the "drive is in use" message). Try booting from the SSD with the HDD disconnected from the computer to see if everything's OK and if it is running fine, then we'll try to figure out something else. But if not, you may need to migrate the OS again.
And I know this goes without saying but I just want to add, just in case you haven't done it yet - please backup your data first.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Novato15]

Boogieman. I need help. It looks like I have done exactly what you write about here. "sometimes the system partition's info can be split in someway between the HDD's and the SSD's system partitions and conflicts may arise (this might be one of the reasons, which might be the cause for the "drive is in use" message)." I had bought an SSD 120GB hard drive to make it my OS and Programs drive and to make the HDD my data drive. When I loaded Windows 7 and then 10 on the SSD, everything worked fine, until I decided to try to format the HDD. It wouldn't let me format the Recovery partition, so I decided to buy another identical SDD and make it the data drive. However, when I took out the HDD and put in the SDD, bios said that there was no bootable disk available. So then using an USB, I loaded Windows 7 and then 10 on the second SDD. Now when I try to format the first SSD using Disk Manager in Windows 10, I cannot do it... it says there's not enough room on the hard drive. Then I recognized that both SSDs are showing active although only one is the bootable drive. So seeing your above answer, I tried unhooking the first drive, and bios once again says there is no bootable disk. So somehow the bootable partition is split between both SSDs? What can I do? Migrate the OS again? How does one do that?

 

[CompGee]

Back up your data, and wipe all the disks. Clean install with all storage media connected, problem solved in 2 hours.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well, basically CompGee has said it. You already have your data backed up if I recall properly from your reply. It would be best if you could do a clean install, but the only thing I didn't understand is why you should do it with all the storage drives connected. This should work but you might not be able to boot to Windows if you decide to disconnect one of the secondary storage drives at some point.

edit: Sorry didn't realize the reply has been posted way back in July, so backup again.