How To Reformat Windows Xp

man, today i made a big mistake, i was installing a new OS on a new server, i had backup some files from that server on my USB external drive and i reformatted the whole drive in the process, then when i tried to get my files using a windows computer, all the data was gone, what was worst i could get any data to be saved in the drive now. so it looks like the partition was gone also.

when i tried to add a folder, this is the error i got: Unable To Create Folder




when i tried to reformat it, it didn't do anything:




so i was stuck here, i didn't know what to do next.

finally, i found the solution to this problem,

so here is how you would fix or reformat your external USB drives, whether is a disk drive or a flash card aka pen drive (pin drive??)

step1. go to start > settings > control panel (see image)




> Administrative Tools (see image)




> Computer Management (see image)




Once you are in computer management, you will see "Disk Management" select "Disk Management and on the right side, you will see your drives.
CAUTION: make sure you ONLY FOLLOW THESE STEPS ON THE DRIVE FOR ASSIGNED TO YOUR USB DRIVE. NEVER DO THE C: DRIVE. SO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHICH LETTER IS THE YOUR USB DRIVE. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY ON ANY DATA LOST.

now that i gave you my WARNING, lets continue. and right click on your USB Drive, in my case, its letter F: so i right click on the F: Drive and select "Format". This is how it should look like on the pictures below.




now when you have selected "Format" you will get a warning:
This is the active partition on this disk. All data on the partition will be lost. Are you sure you want to format this partition?




Since i don't have anything on my USB Drive, I click on "Yes"
after you have clicked yes, it will take you to another windows and populate your information, this is my example:
Volume label: Wolverine
Files System: NTFS
Allocation unit size: Default
[x] Perform a quick format
[ ] Enable file and folder compression

After you have populated all the fields, click OK




After you click OK, you will get a warning pop-up window:
WARNING: formatting will erase all data on this volume.
To format the volume, click OK. To quit, click Cancel.

Click OK to continue...




oh crap.. i got this error popup window:
The format did not complete successfully

UPDATE:

i figure out a way to do it through the DOS command line if the procedure i just gave you on this post doesnt work for you: try the following post: