Hi
I'm trying to format my drive but always get the message " Drive C: is currently in use by another process - aborting format"

Is there a guaranteed way to format the drive despite such messages?

When I attempt to restart with ctrl+alt+del the 'close program' box pops up indicating that explorer needs to be shut down. However despite countless attempts to click on 'end task' explorer REFUSES to shut down.

I'm only guessing that there may be a connection between this and the message that drive C is currently being used by another process.

Would it help to bypass windows (ME) and boot straight to the Dos prompt?
If so, does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks
MikeHello kiravon,
Now you are trying to format your Hard Drive while USING Windows? You can't format a hard drive that is being used. What you need to do is
1) get a boot disk
2) insert boot disk
3) Restart Computer
If the computer dosen't attempt booting to the disk, Restart your computer! GO into the BIOS Menu, simply by clicking the REQUESTED button on startup, It should tell you to click an F# (F1) button or a combination of buttons, Ctrl,Alt,Enter (Control, Alt, Enter)
Look for where it shows the boot options, *It may look DIFFERENT*
(First Boot Device)
(Second Boot Device)
Set it to this:
First Boot Device: Floppy
Second Boot Device: Hard Disk
EXIT BIOS MENU AND SAVE CHANGES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If The Computer Boots To The Floppy
Click on 1 (Boot with disk support)
it should say it found a cd drive and abunch of stuff
when it comes up on a command prompt type,
format c:

Post back about the results

If you need a bootdisk goto:
http://spock.uccs.edu/pub/bootdisks/bootme.exe
and Run the boot image with a floppy in your drive!
This will create your bootdisk!!!Hi
Thanks for that - mission accomplished!

Working through your suggestions reminded me of when I used to
have to regularly format when using Win95 (about twice a day if I remember)
its amazing how quickly you can forget everything.

Thanks again
Mike