DIY Computer Repairs

Format Hard Drive - How To Format Your Computer

This guide shows you how to format your computer. Formatting can be done by anybody, as long as you follow the steps carefully.  With some exposure and practice, you will soon become a pro at formatting computers.

Ok we have tried a few different things to try and cure your computer problems,

1. System Restore

2. Last Known Good Config

3. Windows XP Repair

If after trying the steps above, you are still having PC problems & computer errors then I’m afraid the time has come for a little more drastic action, in the form of a harddrive format.

We are going to show you how easy it is to format a drive, but before going any further let’s just run through a small checklist in order to make this as smooth an operation as possible.

***** Please Ensure You Have The Following*****

1 . Your Windows XP CD…?  Without this you are not going to be able to re-install your operating system.

2. Your 25 digit product key…? In  order to re-activate your Windows XP after re-installing.

3. If your system has a SATA Hard Drive as opposed to a ATA Hard Drive, you will need the driver disc which is usually a floppy disc. This disc is requested by Windows during the first few minutes of the re-install procedure.

4. Have you made backups of all the important data you wish to keep..? Double check this because after formatting there will be nothing left !

5. The driver disc (usually a CD) that came with your motherboard  / system  Although Windows will load generic drivers during the install procedure, you will need this disc after Windows has finished installing.

6. Please make sure you print out these instructions before proceeding with a format.

NOTE: If any of the above are missing then I strongly advise against proceeding with a harddrive format at this time. You would be better to wait untill you have all the listed items above & then formatting is a piece of cake.

Lets Begin

1. Insert your Windows XP CD in to your CD /DVD drive. If the CD tries to load or auto run, just press cancel.

2. Reboot your system & as soon as you see the bios text appear on the screen, press F12 to access the boot menu.

3. Use your keyboard arrow keys to select “boot from CD ROM” Press enter.

4. Watch the screen closely, you will be asked to press any key to boot from CD.

5. Press any key, space bar or enter is fine.

6. The CD will start to load :

Format How To (part 1)