Hard drive formatting problem

[Mega Member]

I am trying to format my Hitachi hard disk (windows xp). The formating process stop after some time and show error "Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if this volume is dismounted first.All open handles to this volume would then be invalid. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)". Can any one solve this hard drive formatting problem?

[Calvin K]

This hard drive formatting problem occur when you are trying to format system drive (C:\) drive from within Windows, you can' format the active drive while in Windows. If drive C: is NTFS, you aren't going to be able to change to it from DOS.

[Lillebror]

Are you trying to format the drive that you are currently using? Are you logged into windows? If a fat32 partition larger than 32 gigabyte is desired, the hard drive or partition will need to be created before running windows XP setup.

[Wynn]

This hard drive formatting problem occurs when there are files that are being used on the volume that you are trying to convert. This includes files that are accessed by users over the network. To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods: Quit all the programs that are using the files on the drive, and then type y at the command prompt to convert the drive to NTFS. At the command prompt, type Y.