Normally, FORMAT tried to help you in case you decide that you formatted the wrong drive.
In MS-DOS, FORMAT could take a parameter /U which disabled this. Apparently, the documentation described it thusly:
/U
Specifies an unconditional format of a disk. Unconditional formatting destroys all existing data on a disk and prevents you from later "unformatting" the disk. You should use /U if you have received read and write errors during use of a disk. For information about unformatting a disk, see the UNFORMAT command.
Since for some reason saving unformatting information fails, this sounds like exactly what you want. So you want to pass /U when invoking format; something like FORMAT C: /U should do.
Keep in mind that DOS wasn't exactly designed to be particularly robust; it was designed to run in a small footprint while still providing the essential services of a disk operating system, with the operating system proper running in about 60 KB of RAM and most utilities provided with it not being much larger than that as I recall.
Unrelated to the question, but:
I have to go flip my breaker (you might say "Unplug it!!!" but that throws sparks, the house has got old wiring). I need SERIOUS help.
I would get that outlet replaced right away. The throwing sparks simply because of unplugging a load is not related to the wiring, it is related to the outlet, and the outlet is (or at the very least should be) trivial to replace. Alternatively, you have some seriously weird electrical outlets where you live.