How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows Vista
Users of Windows Vista are able to use Vista’s built-in Disk Management program to format hard drives on their computer. Formatting erases all current data on the hard drive so that the drive has a clean slate. Drives that can be formatted with Disk Management include internal and external hard drives, SD cards and flash drives. By selecting the correct format settings, you can easily format a hard drive or other nonvolatile storage device in Windows Vista.
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Instructions
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Click the Windows Start button and choose “Control Panel.”
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Click the “Administrative Tools” icon within “Control Panel.”
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Double-click the “Computer Management” icon within “Administrative Tools.”
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Click the “Disk Management” icon under the “Storage” icon.
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Right-click the hard drive to be formatted. Select “Format” from the list of options that appear.
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Type in a name for the hard drive next to “Volume label” Ideally, the name describes the contents of the hard drive, although some users either leave it as “New Volume” or use their last name.
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Select “File system.” This can be NTFS, FAT or FAT32. NTFS is most commonly used for internal hard drives, as it is recognized by Windows and Macintosh and can be used with large-capacity drives. Flash drives and SD cards are formatted as FAT or FAT32.
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Select “Allocation unit size.” Unless otherwise instructed, select “Default” for this option.
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Check the box next to “Perform a quick format” if you would like to quickly format the drive. For a more thorough formatting of the hard drive, uncheck this box.
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Click “OK” to begin formatting the hard drive in Windows Vista. Click “Finish” to complete the process.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have an external hard drive that you will also be using on older computer or Macintosh computer, choose FAT32 or FAT as the file system.
Formatting your hard drive means that you'll lose all data on the hard drive. Don’t format the hard drive unless you're sure it does not contain any important data.
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