Hi,

I found windows 8 better on my laptop and reinstalled win 7 on my desktop but have been left with hard drive I cannot format. A message tells me i do not have permission to do this.

Can anyone help? I need to delete the encrypted partition.
Thanks.

What PC can't you format? Much more info needed.

See this thread (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-system/cannot-format-hard-driver-a-message-tells-me-i-do/d3394101-3427-4789-b02a-3a6579b6394b) if it helps.

For anyone, who is going to work with their hard drive, to format it, partition it, change the size of partitions, etc., they should first get a Hard Drive Management program and put it on a bootable CD.
That is the first and foremost Tool, for any kind of hard drive management.

For years, I like so many others, used Partition Magic 8, but that is now out of date.
So now I use "Easeus Partition Master", on a bootable CD.
You need the bootable CD when you're setting up a new hard drive, before the OS is even installed.

But before there even was a Partition Manager program, there was DOS.
I've had my own DOS Utilities disk, (floppy disk, CD and Flash Drive) for years.
I use that to clean up a used hard drive or do the initial setup on a brand new drive.
Why?...you may ask. Well, because the DOS Format command is the only thing that will not only format an entire drive, but TEST and Validate every sector for reliability.

I will never trust a new hard drive, till it's been DOS formatted.
I use the DOS FDISK program to first partition the drive and then the DOS Format program to format it. Then, and only then, do I know that the drive is trustworthy.

There is NO hard drive that I can't format, unless it's broken.

Cheers Mates!
TechnoMage :cool:

The original OP has yet to return. Perhaps he does not need our help.

Or maybe he took our advise and then realizing how simple it all was, he was too embarrassed to come back and say "Thanks". Eh?