How to format a hard drive - tips for beginners

When reinstalling the operating system or purchasing a new hard drive, it becomes necessary to configure it. To understand how to format a hard disk, the article will tell.

New hard drive and its formatting

When the hard disk is formatted, localDisks that are assigned to the operating system and files that are not related to it. Before proceeding to describe the step-by-step instructions on how to format a hard disk, note that you need a boot disk with the Windows operating system. The new hard drive must be installed in the system unit of the computer that is turned off. Then turn on the computer and start the operating system from the old hard drive.

After the hard disk is determined,open the menu called "My Computer". Then right-click on the icon of the new hard drive. In the window that opens, select the "Format" command. When selecting a file system, specify NTFS. Some operating systems use FAT32. But it is gradually replaced by NTFS. In the "Cluster size" item, specify "Standard size". In the "Volume label" field, give the name to the new hard drive. From the point "Quick" it is necessary to remove the tick. This turns on the surface erasure function of the sectors. After clicking the "Start" button, the hard disk is formatted.

If there is no dedicated hard OSdisk, formatting of the hard drive can be done while installing the system. At the end of the formatting process, Windows XP displays a menu to select the volume to which the system will boot. You must specify the hard drive or its partition, select "Format to NTFS (full)", and then press Enter.

The process of formatting a hard disk canvary depending on which operating system is installed on the computer. So, the following example shows how to format the hard drive when installing Windows Vista (Seven). You need to follow the step-by-step menu, until the window appears, which indicates the active hard disks. The new hard drive should be highlighted with the mouse cursor and click the "Delete" button. With the help of the left mouse button click on the appeared field "Unplaced area" and click the "Create" button. You must specify the size of the new volume. Experts advise under OS to allocate from fifty to one hundred gigabytes. A second local disk is also created. Then return to the first local disk and click the "Next" button to continue the installation of Windows.

Knowing how to completely format a hard diskdrive will help you out if the operating system of your computer is badly damaged by viruses. But it is worth remembering that during the process the data stored on the hard drive will disappear. There is a way how to save the necessary files and reinstall the operating system. To extract data from the hard disk, you must install the boot disk in the drive, reboot the computer and select "boot from disk" in the menu. The operating system will be loaded, after which the files can be saved to another medium. Then format the local disks, and reinstall the OS. This procedure is possible if your operating system collapses. In another case, it will not be possible to format the local drive where it is installed.

Formatting without a boot disk

Some users may experiencea serious question: how to format a hard disk, if there is no boot disk? Partition Magic will help. It needs to be installed on the computer, run. In the opened main menu, a list of all hard disks and their partitions. Mark the system drive, select "Partition" in the toolbar. In the menu that appears, select "Format", in the additional window, specify the type of partition (that is, the file system). Then click OK and wait for the operation to finish.

Now you know how to format the hard drive, and you will be able to cope with the problem on your own!