Windows was unable to complete the format

[Kalah]

Here's the issue:

I recently bought a new PC (built from parts) and installed Windows 7 (downloaded) on it. So Win 7 is running on an SSD, working well.

Inside the tower, I have two SATA HDDs, one of them is the old system drive from my old PC, which ran WinXP.

I would like a clean reformat and use both HDDs for storage only, but when I now try to click "format" on that old HDD, I just get the message that "Windows was unable to complete the format".

I tried going via Computer Managetment --> Disk Management, but that didn't work either. Trying format on that gives me the message "Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk".

What can I do to reformat the old HDD?

[HappyAndyK]

Does anything here help http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/wind...tion-disc.html ?

Or else use Best Free Defragmentation Software for Windows 7 | 8.

[bill10]

Try Easeus Partition Manager to format it.