Warning when trying to reformat external drive

Trying to reformat my external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS using WinXP Home on my pc. I keep getting a message that says "Primary parition is currently in use. To force the format of this volume click Yes. WARNING: To force a format might cause unexpected errors in the application that is using this volume. Do you want to continue?"

I have nothing on this external drive. What application could be using that drive? Should I force the format anyway? Thank you.

Acadia

 

Was there any installation/setup software included with the drive? If so, there might be a formatting tool there that would give you the ability to format in NTFS. (Just a thought.)

 

Thanks, Dangitall. I finally ignored the warning, held my breath, and forced the formatting. It appears to have worked and everything seems to be just fine ... who knows

Acadia

 

Glad it worked. It was probably just another bit of freakishness from Microsoft, anyway!