How To Format Hard Drive With Windows XP

Those of you who remember the old days, when you needed a boot disk to format a hard drive will be happy to know that you can learn how format a hard drive with Windows XP without knowing a single command line command. You can still do it from the command line if you are a die-hard techie but Microsoft has made it easier for those of use who appreciate using the graphical interface to format a hard drive in Windows XP.

1. Log on as a user who has administrator rights to the Windows XP computer. Users without administrative rights cannot format a hard drive in Windows XP. Click “Start.”
2. Select “Control Panel” from the “Start” menu. Double-click on “Administrative” tools.
3. Open “Computer Management.” Select “Disk Management” from beneath “Storage.”
4. Right-click on the disk you want to format. Select “Format.”
5. Type a name for the disk in the “Volume label” field. Select a format type from the “File system” drop-down box. You can choose to format a hard drive in Windows XP as NTFS or FAT.
6. Select “Perform a quick format” and/or “Enable file and folder compression” if you desire. You can only use file compression on an NTFS formatted disk when you format a hard drive in Windows XP. Do not choose to “Perform a quick format” if you want to completely wipe the hard drive. Click the “OK” button. Click the “OK” button again to confirm that you want to format the drive.