Discuss How To Format A Hard Drive

If you have known numerous Blue Screens of Death on your PC, or hear the fateful ticking sound coming from your laptop, it is in all likelihood time to format your Hard Drive. Formatting will get rid of all information on the drive and is the fastest way to get rid of viruses. Formatting does not only have to be done when there is a problem, it can also be utilised to just erase a drive in one go, if for example you are planning to upgrade the drive a new operating system. This guide will explain how to format a Hard Drive on a PC as well as MAC.

Required tools and materials

A Windows or Macintosh Hard drive utility disk

Instructions

Step one:
Open the main drive of the Mac usually called Macintosh HD
Go to: Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
This will open all the drives linked to the computer.

Step two:
Select the disk that you want to format from the listing on the left, then select the erase tab that is located to the right of the HD listing. A listing of formatting alternatives will open.

Step three:
Pick the Volume format option from the listing that will pop up.

Step five:
Name the mounted hard drive and type it in the area specified.

Step six:
Pick the erase button and a window will open asking to confirm your choice. Select erase again and the formatting process will begin.

Once formatting is complete, the drive will be displayed with the name it was given in step five as well as on the desktop of the Mac.

How to format a Hard Drive with Windows XP.

Step one:
To format a hard drive with Windows XP or 2000, insert Windows CD and restart your computer.

Step two:
Your PC must automatically boot from the CD to the Windows Setup Main Menu.

At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.

Step three:
Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

Step four:
If XP is already installed, you will be asked prompted to to repair it. Press escape to bypass the option.

Step five:
Use the ARROW keys to select the partition or the unpartitioned space where you want to create a new partition. Press D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition. Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then press "enter" or just press "enter" to make the partition with the maximum size.

Step six:
Select the format option that you wish to use for the partition (Recommended: NTFS), and then press ENTER.

Step seven:
After the Windows Setup program erases the partition, follow the directions that appear on the screen to continue installing Windows.

Tips and warnings:

1) Before formatting a hard drive back up all the information you need from the drive. You will lose ALL the data stored on the drive after formatting.
2) If you are formatting a Macintosh, you cannot format the startup disk unless the system has started up from the installation CD.
3) Be patient, this may take a while. The amount of time it will take to format a hard drive will depend on numerous factors:

1. The size of the drive (larger drives (120 GB and up) will take a longer time to format than smaller ones).
2. The kind of file system of the drives. Windows drives with New technology File System (NTFS) file systems will take longer to format than (FAT or FAT 32).

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