Can't format hard drive!

[lickedone]

I have a second hard drive and I am trying to format. I get an error that says "Windows was unable to complete the format." I have tried both quick and normal format. The only file system option available is NTFS. The worst part is that now if I try to access the drive it says it needs to be formatted. I need to get this done by tomorrow, can anyone help?!

[sirace1]

Windows XP File System: NTFS
One of the first choices you have to make when you install (or upgrade to) Windows XP is the file system. FAT(32) or NTFS.

This is really an easy choice. There's only one reason not to choose NTFS; if you need to have an operating system which can't read NTFS (Win9x, MS-DOS etc.) to be able to access the partition. This limitation only applies to the local machine. If you want to access an NTFS drive across a network, any OS can access the NTFS partition.

When installing Windows XP on a hard disk with a volume greater than 32GB, you must use NTFS. (Windows XP can read FAT32 formatted drives/volumes > 32GB, but cannot create/format them as FAT32).

People who work with large files (video/audio) will also need to use NTFS at a certain point: FAT32 supports a maximum (single) file size of 4GB, which is roughly 20 minutes of video. NTFS doesn't have this restriction.