Hard drive not formatting

[webby93]

I have 3 hard drives in my computer. They all had a os on as I have upgraded from 32bit(D drive) to 64bit(E drive) and then I got a brand new drive so installed windows 7 ultimate 64bit on that (c drive). So I have been able to format the windows 7 32bit (d drive) but for some reason it will not let me format the older 64 bit (E drive). Is there anyway apart from the right click format and disk management to stop this happening or is there a particular reason why this is happening. I am booting from the C drive so it isn't that I am currently running it.

Thanks for any help in advance
James

 

[WhiteFlare]

Try booting from a CD/Flash drive with a Linux distribution on it and use GParted to format the drive of your choosing.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Ditto. There might be some hidden system files on there that can't be erased. GParted will do that no problem. Read Mak's GParted guide. http://www.techist.com/forums/f127/gparted-usage-tutorial-224994/

 

[kingehab2000]

Try to boot by live cd and you can make any kind of formatting

 

[MindoverMaster]

The same as GParted. It will go straight to the GParted prompt, though. Just if you aren't familiar with Linux.