How do I format a hard drive

[DJW]

Time for me to wipe and format my slave hard drive running windows XP
pro. What do I do? Only done it a long time ago on a win 98SE machine
and then used FDISK. Can I just right button click while it is
selected in My Computer and choose format? Can I do a quick format or
should I do the long way. Also am wanting to switch from FAT32 to
NTFS. And if I want to compress a file or two from time to time (zip /
make file entry blue) do I need to enable compress also?

 

[Barry Schwarz]

Time for me to wipe and format my slave hard drive running windows XP
pro. What do I do? Only done it a long time ago on a win 98SE machine
and then used FDISK. Can I just right button click while it is
selected in My Computer and choose format?

Since you no longer care about the contents of the drive, it would be
much faster just to try it and see what happens than wait for an
answer here.

Can I do a quick format or
should I do the long way.

This may depend on why you want to format the drive.

Also am wanting to switch from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Does format give you that option?

And if I want to compress a file or two from time to time (zip /
make file entry blue) do I need to enable compress also?

Did you look at the "compress" articles in Help and Support?

 

[DJW]

Since you no longer care about the contents of the drive, it would be
much faster just to try it and see what happens than wait for an
answer here.


This may depend on why you want to format the drive.


Does format give you that option?


Did you look at the "compress" articles in Help and Support?

Thanks for the reply but kind of seems like you know less than I do
about windows and why would it matter why I want to format the drive I
just do. lol

 

[SC Tom]

Thanks for the reply but kind of seems like you know less than I do
about windows and why would it matter why I want to format the drive I
just do. lol

I think Barry's intention was to get you to think for yourself on this one Not much has changed from the Win 95/98
days as far as formatting goes, so right-click on the drive you want to format and select "Format." The Format window
will come up, giving you a number of choices. Just go from there.

 

[DJW]

I think Barry's intention was to get you to think for yourself on this one Not much has changed from the Win 95/98
days as far as formatting goes, so right-click on the drive you want to format and select "Format." The Format window
will come up, giving you a number of choices. Just go from there.

Ok will try it thanks but never did a format of a hard drive that way
in win 98 days always used FDISK. floppies yes hard drive no. And as
far as just trying something not big on that. Like telling some one ok
just go into your windows folder and rename, remove or delete whatever
you want and reboot and see what will happen lol

 

[SC Tom]

Ok will try it thanks but never did a format of a hard drive that way
in win 98 days always used FDISK. floppies yes hard drive no. And as
far as just trying something not big on that. Like telling some one ok
just go into your windows folder and rename, remove or delete whatever
you want and reboot and see what will happen lol

Well, since you're removing an OS from a different drive than your C: (by formatting it), I have to assume you're not
really messing with system files. I wasn't suggesting anything near that drastic; more like telling you to delete your
temp files.
I have to ask before you start- is that drive part of a dual boot setup, or is it just a spare drive that you're
installing simply to format?

 

[philo]

Time for me to wipe and format my slave hard drive running windows XP
pro. What do I do? Only done it a long time ago on a win 98SE machine
and then used FDISK. Can I just right button click while it is
selected in My Computer and choose format? Can I do a quick format or
should I do the long way. Also am wanting to switch from FAT32 to
NTFS. And if I want to compress a file or two from time to time (zip /
make file entry blue) do I need to enable compress also?

Just use disk management

 

[DJW]

Just use disk management

It is just a drive that is a slave in the computer I put in from an
older computer thus it is formated as FAT34. No bootable system on it
just old personal files. What is disk manager is it part of windows XP
pro? Or a third party application?

 

[SC Tom]

It is just a drive that is a slave in the computer I put in from an
older computer thus it is formated as FAT34. No bootable system on it
just old personal files. What is disk manager is it part of windows XP
pro? Or a third party application?

Disk Management is part of Windows. Go to Start > Run, type in diskmgmt.msc
and press Enter.

 

[Barry Schwarz]

Thanks for the reply but kind of seems like you know less than I do
about windows and why would it matter why I want to format the drive I
just do. lol

You are right. I know absolutely nothing about your system except
what you said - "XP pro". Hopefully, you know a bit more, such as SP
level or whether you have added any system utilities or deleted any
previously unused components which might now be needed. But since you
don't consider that information relevant to your question, who am I to
give advice.

If you are formatting the drive just to start with a clean file
allocation table, then a quick format is probably adequate. If you
are formatting the drive because you believe it has bad or flaky
sectors, then a full format will write each sector and possibly
provide diagnostic information. But since you don't think that is
relevant to your question, who am I to give advice.