Hello everyone! I bought a rather older dell off eBay just recently that said it had a "virus". It is a Dell Optiplex GX 50. I know I know its old. But its perfect for what I need it for. I'm a photographer and bought it for a Fuji Pictrography machine so it can print my images. So for just running a printer off it its fine. Well I thought it was. It has Windows 2000 and XP installed. Xp runs great the 2000 however does not. I wanted to format the whole computer just to get rid of any "bugs" it may or may not have. Plus there is some personal information on it from the previous owner. When I'm in 2000 or XP I get the same message from the command prompt when I try to format. It tells me that "the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if the volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD BE INVALID. Would you like to force dismount on this volume? If you say yes it then says "cannot lock the drive the volume is still in use. Any ideas to get around this or what to do? I have XP cds, so I just want to format the whole damn computer if I can. 2000 is the issue. It gets error messages with malicious scripts on it and takes forever to boot. XP runs great..I actually got it to connect with my wireless adapter and it was so much faster then my newer computer. Go figure. I also looked at the storage under computer management and it does not show separate partitions for each operating system. I tried to boot to the XP cd but it wont do that either. Just flashes green and tells me to insert media in drive. I know the cd drive works because I installed the wireless adapter with it. How the do I format this?

Go here and get DBAN, follow the instructions on the website on it's use.

Then install you operating system of choice...

DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke

I did go there and I'm sorry, but I am a bit confused what one to download...I tried several but I really don't know what version I need.

Click on where it says this:

Download Darik's Boot and Nuke 1.0.7

• for CD and DVD media.

at the DBAN website...

Hey, Wombat,

I'm curious, why should funkypetals do anything if he wants to strip (format) his disk clean and reinstall? I have always just let the OS install the slow way when I do a total reinstallation. Would be less confusion for him to just pop in his XP cd and boot up. Follow instruction for installation and where it says format use the long method as the quick method may not clean as well.
Just curious, straighten me out on this!

Gen. D

DBAN will wipe (DOD Standards) the hard drive of everything, operating systems, personal data, virus's etc.

You can then insert your operating system disk of choice and start fresh on a clean drive...

__________________


Wombat's: Bulldozers of the bush...

I also use Dban to wipe drives..Cleaner drives cause less installation issues...especially when dealing with older drives.

There is nothing more frustrating than to take the time to reformat and install an operating system just to have the job fail on reboot during the installation process.

Thanks Wombat,

That is good to know, first time I have heard of it. Where can I get a copy? Can it be downloaded


Old Timer

Yes it can be downloaded.

Get a copy from here: DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke

How to use it: DBAN Documentation | Darik's Boot And Nuke

It worked wonders!! TY =)