Boot From 2Nd Hdd To Format The First

My physics/algebra 2 teacher is giving my an old desktop (Pentium 4). Before I actually bring it home, we need to format the primary slave HDD. The primary slave was the primary master. Yesterday, we tried to format the primary (what was then). Windows refused to format the HDD because it was using it.

Today, I took the one from my PC to school to boot from that. The plan was that after booting from it, use that copy of Windows to format the HDD that was in it first. The HDD I took has two OS's on it. The PC's BIOS is not configured to handle that, so it boots from the HDD we're trying to format.

How can I accomplish my goal?

Actually, I have a plan that needs confirmed. Can I do this:

He (my teacher) has a 3^rd HDD. I think I can format it. Then I can make an exact copy of my HDD's Windows partition onto it. Then change some jumper settings and boot from the third HDD. I can then format the original HDD.

First does the system have a floppy drive or a cd/dvd drive? If it does, simply remove all hard drives except the one you want to format. The one that you are going to format should be hooked up as primary master for now. Now if your computer has a floppy disk drive, use an old msdos or windows95/98/me floppy boot disk to boot the computer. If you don't have a floppy boot disk, you can download one at http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm. I suggest the windows ME OEM boot disk. Scroll to bottom of the page for instructions on making the boot disk. You can also do this for making a boot CD if you do not have a floppy disk drive.Once you have your boot disk, put it into the floppy or CD drive and boot up the computer with only the HDD installed that you want to format. Once the boot process has finished, you will be looking at a DOS screen with an A:\ prompt. Type format c: and follow the on screen prompts. Once the format is complete you may remove the boot disk, power down the computer, re-install the other hard disks and all should be well.This will format the drive in the FAT32 file system however if you want if formatted in NTFS simply format it again once you are in windows. You shouldn't have any issues formatting the drive in windows now since it is not running windows from this drive any more. Thats it!