# Formatting "old" HD

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/formatting-old-hd/83740>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [March 21, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/formatting-old-hd/83740 "2005-03-21T21:18:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wizard](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/wizard)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/formatting-old-hd/83740/1 "2005-03-21T21:18:05Z")

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So yesterday I found this old hard drive, it’s really not old (4 years) but hasn’t been used in a couple of years… anyway, I decided to format it but when I try to I get this error message:

> Windows cannot format this drive because it contains files in use by Windows.  
> What does that mean? And how can I get around it, or solve it?

Thanks in advance for anything you can supply me with. 😃