How to Erase & Format a Hard Drive

Reformatting your hard drive will erase and format the drive before reinstalling your operating system.

If your computer is not performing the way it used to when you first purchased it, one possible solution is to reformat the hard drive. The process of reformatting a drive automatically erases all of the data from the drive before reinstalling the computer's operating system; back up your files to a disk and put it in a safe location before attempting. To properly erase and format your drive, you'll need the original installation discs that came with your computer.

Things You'll Need

• Installation CD

Instructions

1. Open the CD or DVD drive on your computer. Insert the installation CD in the drive.

2. Turn your computer off and then turn it back on. As the computer is restarting, you will see the message, "Press any key to boot from CD." Press any key on the keyboard to boot from the installation CD.

3. Select your language preferences from the language preference screen and click "Next."

4. Read the licensing terms and click "I accept the license terms." Click "Next."

5. Click the "Custom" option when presented with the two installation choices. This option allows you to erase and reformat the hard drive before reinstalling Windows.

6. Delete any existing partitions before formatting your main hard drive. To do this, click on the partition and click the "Delete" option. Once you have deleted all partitions and only one drive remains, continue to the next step.

7. Click your computer's main hard drive and then click the "Format" option. Your entire hard drive will be erased and formatted. After the drive is formatted, click the "Next" button.

8. Reinstall Windows by following the instructions provided by the installation wizard. You will be asked to complete some settings, including creating an administrator account and password.

References

• Microsoft.com: Installing and Reinstalling Windows 7
• Techterms.com: Format