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How do I format hard drive without using os cd?

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Answerbag Staff

by Answerbag Staff on November 11th, 2009

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  • Great Answer

    Professionally Researched. (What's this?)

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    William Nagel Nov 11th, 2009 The formatting utility on the operating system disk that came with your computer is a useful tool for recycling hard drives; it reformats the drive and resets it to an unused state. The utility included with your operating system disk is simple and straightforward to use, but you can still format a hard drive without it. Free utilities are available online that make formatting a hard drive an easy, visual task.

    Terminology

    A hard drive is a physical object--the hardware that sits in the computer. A partition is a section of space on that hard drive, represented digitally by a partition table. A file system is an information format written onto a partition. Most hard drives have two to three partitions. When you format your hard drive, you will delete all the old partitions on the hard drive; then, you will create a new partition and format it with a new file system.

    Formatting your Hard Drive with GParted

    GParted is an open-source, user-friendly application that is free to use and download. Download GParted from gparted.sourceforge.net and create a bootable CD from the image, then boot your computer from the CD to start the program. If you have more than one hard drive, select "Devices" under the GParted menu and pick the hard drive you want to format from the list. A graphical representation of the partitions on the selected hard drive will appear in the main window.

    Click on each partition, then press the "Delete" button. Once all the partitions have been deleted, select the unallocated space and click "New" to create a new partition. The data on your hard drive is not being deleted during this process, you are simply redefining the partitions.

    In the new partition window, choose the file system to write to the new partition. Set the partition as the "Primary Partition" and make the partition the maximum possible size. Click the "Add" button to close the menu then click the "Apply" button to format your hard drive.

    Until you click the "Apply" button in GParted, no changes will be written to your hard drive. You can safely exit GParted at any time without formatting your hard drive if you don't apply your changes.

    Security Considerations

    Formatting your hard drive will corrupt any data already on the drive. Always back up your hard drive before formatting! Formatting your hard drive will not delete old data from the hard drive; a skilled computer user can recover personal information from a formatted hard drive.

    If you are disposing, selling or otherwise getting rid of your hard drive, use a hard drive "scrubber" program to properly erase all the data on your hard drive. Using a "scrubber" will ensure that your personal data is kept safe from hackers and other malicious computer users.

    Source:

    GParted Project Page

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  • pckaty57
    pckaty57 Dec 30th, 2009 You go to your hard drive's web site and download the utilities for formatting and reloading your os. If you have a floppy drive you can use a win98 startup disk to partition and format your hard drive.

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  • rozzane
    rozzane Dec 11th, 2009 1 Setup your BIOS. There is really only one way to format a hard drive, and it's through some kind of bootable device. If it isn't the Windows CD, it can be a floppy drive or another CD. When the computer starts up, it will tell you to hit a key to enter the BIOS; you must quickly hit whichever key is indicated. Once you are in the BIOS, search through the menus until you get to an option that reads something like "Boot Device Order." Select "Floppy" or "CD-ROM," "Removable Device" or something similar, depending on what kind of bootable device you will use. Exit and save your changes.

    2 Make a bootable disk. You need to download the files from somewhere to make your bootable device. Bootdisk.com has a good selection of files (see Resources); some are free and some are not. For a floppy, you usually merely need to insert a floppy disk in the drive and then run the utility that you downloaded; this will make a bootable floppy. For a CD you must have CD-burning software. You will need to run the software to copy the files you have downloaded and select "Make This CD Bootable." In making the bootable device, make sure one of the utilities you download has a format tool (you will have to read though the documentation).

    3 Restart your computer. Start the computer with the BIOS correctly set and the bootable disk in place. The computer will run from the boot disk or boot CD. If you are using standard DOS on your boot disk, you will just need to type "format C:" ("C" refers to your hard drive). If you are using another program, you will need to use its commands.
    and for any query visit http://www.iyogi.net

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