Can't format local drive

Sharegev · 01 Jun 2016

Hi,
I have a local Disk (D), which it's content is from my previous PC (Drive C in my previous PC).
I don't need it anymore, and I think it is causing problems to Office.

I uninstalled Office, and I'm trying to format this D drive, before I install a newer version of Office.
But I get this message: "Windows was unable to complete the format".

When I try to delete the folders in Drive D I get this message: "You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder". But I don't know where and how to do this.

Can you please advise? (I prefer to just format it)
Thanks,
Sharon

DeaconFrost · 01 Jun 2016

Assuming you have administrator-level access to your system, you may need to take ownership of those files. I would follow this step for the entire D drive.

Take ownership of files and get full access in Windows 10

Whatphoeb · 01 Jun 2016

The easiest thing to try first is to restart Windows in Safe Mode and try to delete the folder from there.

Bastet · 02 Jun 2016

Try formatting the drive via command prompt.

Go to DOS command line (click on "Start Menu", then "Run", type in "cmd" in textbox, and hit "OK")
- Type in "DiskPart" in command line.
- Type in "list disk" in command line to show all disks in this machine.
- Use "select" to set the focus to the specified partition.
  For example "select disk 1".
- Use "clean" command to remove GPT disk from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors.
1. Go back to Disk Management, you can see disk is "Not Initialized" now.
2. Within Disk Management, right click on disk info, choose "Initialize Disk", You can see disk is "Unallocated" now.
3. Right click on disk info, choose "New Partition…", follow Partition Wizard and format it.

Arc · 02 Jun 2016

Sharegev said:

I'm trying to format this D drive, before I install a newer version of Office.
But I get this message: "Windows was unable to complete the format".

+1 with the above, diskpart should do the right job.

If you are not savvy with command line, you may let Windows another go. Delete the partition first, and then create a new one in the free space.

If Windows still fails, you may let Free Partition Wizard do the job.

How to format partition | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial

If Free Partition Wizard is not able to do the job, as Windows was, The Bootable Partition Wizard CD will never fail.

In short, you have lots of ways to do this job.