How To Format A Hard Drive

If your computer is riddled with viruses and you want a clean start, you will want to know how to format a hard drive. Formatting a hard drive is basically a clean slate; it wipes all information off of the hard drive. Unfortunately, this is sometimes neccessary when dealing with a bad virus. Even if you do not know much about computers, formatting is quite easy to do. If you wish to save some of your program files, be sure to back them up before formatting a hard drive.

To format a hard drive, you will need:

• A Windows operating system DVD

1. Start your computer with the Windows DVD in the DVD drive. When the computer loads, it will try to load off of the disc first instead of the hard drive. Usually there is a prompt to press any key to begin Windows install. Be sure to do this.
2. Go through the prompts. The Windows installation will have to load fully before you are able to format your hard drive. Generally it will take from five to ten minutes to load all of the associated install files. Eventually, you will get to a prompt about formatting existing drives.
3. Formatting your existing hard drives. When you click on the format existing drives button, you will be shown all of the current drives in your computer. You can format any hard drive in your computer; it does not have to be the one that you want to install Windows on. In fact, you do not even have to install Windows at the time. Clicking on the drive then clicking format will completely wipe the information off of that partition. Your drive is now formatted and you can do whatever you want with it.