Formatted hard drive?

[Guest]

How am I to know if the hard drive I have is formatted? I am planning to add
an extra drive to my system and have one ready to go, thing is, I'm not sure
if it is formatted (or ready to be installed) I tried the disk on another
computer system and was given a message that the hard drive had no O/S, am I
right in thinking that this means it's formatted?
The disk is not new (came out of a friends old system) thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hi,

You have mentioned that this is Secondary Hard drive on your computer. All
that you need to do is just connect it and start Windows.


There can be three situations:
1. Drive is neither partitioned, not formatted
2. Drive is partitioned but is not formatted
3. Driver is Partitioned and is also formatted


(Drive cannot be formatted without partitioning it, so no fourth situation.
Hope you are awware of it.)

Lets work on your question now.

I will assume you are working on Windows XP.

Under the first situation, windows will prompt you with few basic questions
as soon as it detects a new disks. It is a wizard that will let you
partition and also format.

Under 2nd situation, It will show you the disk under "MY COMPUTER".
However, on clicking the disk it will prompt you to format the disk. You can
continue from there on.

Under the last situation, it will show you the driver under MY COMPUTER and
also will let you open the contents under it. (SO... No issues)

Let me know if this answers your question.

Regards,
KP

 

[null]

How am I to know if the hard drive I have is formatted? I am planning to add
an extra drive to my system and have one ready to go, thing is, I'm not sure
if it is formatted (or ready to be installed) I tried the disk on another
computer system and was given a message that the hard drive had no O/S, am I
right in thinking that this means it's formatted?
The disk is not new (came out of a friends old system) thanks!

Just because it doesn't have an OS, doesn't mean it's not formatted.
Just put it in the PC, and see if you can write files to it - if you
can't, it's probably not formatted (it may also not be partitioned).

--
The reader should exercise normal caution and backup the Registry and
data files regularly, and especially before making any changes to their
PC, as well as performing regular virus and spyware scans. I am not
liable for problems or mishaps that occur from the reader using advice
posted here. No warranty, express or implied, is given with the posting
of this message.

 

[Guest]

You may also have to go into the BIOS and make sure the drive is recognized.

 

[Alex Nichol]

How am I to know if the hard drive I have is formatted? I am planning to add
an extra drive to my system and have one ready to go, thing is, I'm not sure
if it is formatted (or ready to be installed) I tried the disk on another
computer system and was given a message that the hard drive had no O/S, am I
right in thinking that this means it's formatted?

Plug it in as your extra drive, boot XP from your present one, then
Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management, select Disk
Management and look lower right for the graphic of the new drive.

If it is partitioned the partitions will show, and will say what file
system is in use (FAT or NTFS). You can r-click one and delete until it
is all Unallocated space if you like, then r-click in that and Create
Partition. If it has never been set up, it will appear as Unallocated
space already