How to format Your Hard Drive (w/pictures)

Version 0.1

Step 1A-Backup Your drivers and files

Back up all your important files to something like a CD since formatting will wipe your hard drive.

Secondly BACKUP YOUR DRIVERS TO AVOID PROBLEMS to learn how Click here.

Step 1B-Backup your Settings and Files

ALSO BACKUP YOUR INTERNET AND NETWORK SETTINGS TO AVOID TROUBLE

How to Use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP

Step 1C – Booting from the XP CD

If you get a screen asking you to press a key to continue, or “setup is inspecting your computers hardware configuration…” or basically if you boot right into the windows setup skip to Step 2

If the CD drive is not set as a boot device (to be accessed BEFORE the hard drive) you will have to access and modify the BIOS settings. Every BIOS is slightly different but they are generally the same.

To do this:

STEP 1: Turn on the computer.
STEP 2: Press and hold the Delete key (or whichever key your system uses. Look at either the top or bottom of your screen where it says press [key name here] to enter setup the usual keys are DEL,ESC,F8,F1 ) as soon as the computer starts, to display the CMOS start-up screen.
STEP 3: Use the arrow keys to highlight BIOS Features Setup, and press Enter.
STEP 4: Press the down arrow to move to the Boot Sequence field.
STEP 5: Press Page Up or Page Down to display the desired boot sequence.

In this step you make sure CD-ROM is first in line (or at least before the hard drive)

STEP 6: Press Esc to exit the screen.
STEP 7: Highlight Save & Exit Setup, then press Enter. The new boot sequence is saved and the computer restarts.

Once the CD drive is set to be polled before the hard drive, insert the XP CD into the drive and power on the system.

If you get a screen asking you to press a key to continue setup or go right to a blue and grey screen (The beginning of windows setup) all is well and you are ready to begin.

STEP 2- Formatting the Hard Drive

The below screen should be what you are seeing….

Press ENTER and go through the prompts it will ask you to agree to the legal terms (press F8 to agree)

Now you are ready to get started you will see the following screen…

You will see something such as “Local Drive C:” in place of “unpartitioned space”

Press D to delete you drive; you will then see one of the fields change to RAW. As seen below (pay no attention to the unpartitioned space in the list)

Press C to create a partitioned space. You will then be brought to this screen

Make sure maximum size and Create partition of size match to make full use of the drive (In the image above they do not, I am splitting the drive into sections in my case).

Press Enter and you will be brought to the following screen…

DO NOT CHOOSE QUICK, CHOSE ANY OF THE OTHER TWO

Specifying the file system to use for formatting the partition. In most cases you’ll want to use NTFS. It’s far more secure than FAT32 and supports permissions, encryption, and compression. The only reason for considering FAT32 would be data sharing with W9x/Me/linux installations.

You will get a screen with a yellow progress bar and now you have to wait awhile. When the format is done your computer will then reset itself after a few seconds (shown by a red progress bar). After which you will get a loading Windows XP logo.

Step 3- Actually installing Windows…

Now you have to wait yet again until you finally have to start inputting information.

You will go by date and time settings, naming your computer and entering your serial key ect.

Step 4- Network settings

Always choose “typical settings” if you are running XP pro you will be asked to provide a domain or a workgroup. In the cases of home or small office use you would probably be part of a workgroup. Make sure the Workgroup/domain name matches one on your network (If one is already set up). (You can always change this later in the control panel so if you mess up here don’t panic it can be fixed later, look at the bottom of this page for more information on this)

The install is complete…now internet settings

Depending on the version of your install you will be asked at some point what kind of internet settings you have in 99.9% of cases you will be connecting to a Local Area Network (LAN). If you have a router, then your computer DOES NOT connect directly to the internet. (Once again if you mess up here you can fix the settings in control panel. do not panic!)

Changing Control panel settings:

To get to control panel: My Computer>Control panel link on the side under “other places”

Go to “network and internet connections” in NON-classic mode (default for win xp)

Then you go to “Setup or change your internet connection”, in which case you go to LAN settings and make sure it is set to automatically detect your settings. If this doesn’t work it may be a driver problem as some modems require drivers.

In that case run your driver backup utility mentioned earlier and go to the driver backup page of my blog.

To setup a network:

“Setup or change your home or small office network”

To modify either of the two options I mentioned earlier.