How to Clean Out a D Drive on a Computer
You may want to clean out the D drive on your computer if you are planning on giving the machine away, or if the drive has been taken over by a particularly nasty virus. To clean out the D drive, you will need to reformat the drive, which erases everything on it and returns it to the settings it had when it left the factory. The D drive can be reformatted directly from the desktop if it is a secondary drive or a partition on your main drive. If the D drive contains your operating system, however, you will need to use a separate recovery disk.
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Instructions
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From the Desktop
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Open the "Start" menu and click "My Computer" (or double-click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop). Locate the "D:\" drive in the list of available drives.
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Right-click the D drive and select "Format." Click "Continue" if you are using Windows Vista and a new window appears on the screen.
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Click the "File System" drop-down menu and select "NTFS." Click the "Quick Format" check box if you want to save a copy of all of your D drive's current files in a separate folder for later retrieval. Leave the check box blank if you want all data to be permanently deleted.
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Click "Start" and then choose "OK."
From Recovery Disk
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Place the recovery disk that was included with your system in the disk drive. Restart the computer.
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Press the "F2" button, or whichever button your computer system uses to access the recovery disk. Other common options are "F11," "Delete," or "Alt" and "F11" together.
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Scroll down through the list of partitions and select the "D:\" option. Press the "D" key to delete the partition. Delete any other partitions on the drive if you want to clean out the entire hard drive.
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Highlight the option labeled "Unpartitioned Space" and press the "C" key to create a new partition. Press "Enter" to begin reinstalling the operating system.
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Follow the prompts on the screen to set up the various options for your computer's time zone, language, and user name.
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Tips & Warnings
The exact options you choose to use the recovery disk may vary by computer manufacturer and operating system. Check your computer's manual or the support website for your computer manufacturer for more information.
Back up any data you still need to an external source, such as a USB flash, drive before cleaning out the D drive.
