What is the efficient way to format your hard drive?
By kingparker
@kingparker (9673)
United States
October 8, 2011 11:12pm CST
I guess on my previous discussion, not many people understand what I want to ask at the end of the discussion. I just wonder if anyone know a better way to format the PC hard drive if I need to clean up everything in my hard drive, and restart with a new operating system? I always used Windows xp to format the hard drive, and install another operating system as I see suitable later on. Is there another alternative I can utilize to format the hard drive?
5 responses
@Triple0 (1904)
• Australia
9 Oct 11
I reformat my computer like once every term because it gets pretty slow the more I download and it's getting kinda slow right now but I just can't be bothered to format it because it is a long process. The way I format is to delete everything and then install the windows XP CD again to have a few refreshed computer free of viruses and the stuff that slows the computer down. I reckon this is the best way but it is a very long and boring process 
If you want to improve your computer performance without having to reformat in this way, maybe open the Defragment program in the accessories and let your computer compress and remove all the files you don't use anyway.
Maybe do some clean ups, I use CCleaner to scan my computer and delete the stuff I don't use anymore and uninstall pointless programs. It also fixes your registry as well because a damaged registry will slow your computer. Scan for viruses too and that should do it. Oh! When you just reformatted your computer and it's freshly new, make a restore point so that when your computer is slow again, you can go back to your restore point which reverses your computer back the the time it was fresh and new again. 
If you want to improve your computer performance without having to reformat in this way, maybe open the Defragment program in the accessories and let your computer compress and remove all the files you don't use anyway.
Maybe do some clean ups, I use CCleaner to scan my computer and delete the stuff I don't use anymore and uninstall pointless programs. It also fixes your registry as well because a damaged registry will slow your computer. Scan for viruses too and that should do it. Oh! When you just reformatted your computer and it's freshly new, make a restore point so that when your computer is slow again, you can go back to your restore point which reverses your computer back the the time it was fresh and new again. 
@iuliuxd (4453)
• Romania
10 Oct 11
You can`t format your drive that way if it has windows on it.The best way to format the hard drive is to boot from windows CD and then select format the partition.
@ReViewMeMedia (3785)
• United States
13 Oct 11
I don't reformat my computer because it's a hassle and I just defrag and clean my computer and delete stuff I don't use.
@smacksman (6053)
•
9 Oct 11
You could always partition your hard drive and install your OS onto it and add your motherboard drivers as normal. Then move your data across to the new partition and then format your old C: drive to clean it up. A full formay to NTFS type is better as a qick format just removes the boot sector and leaves all the files there.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
11 Oct 11
I honestly have no idea. I have needed to do this a few times and never did know how to do it right or quickly.
@sriram19 (111)
• India
10 Oct 11
As you might currently be using windows XP, you can format your hard drive from the systems own software's esp the pre-installed ones like the hard-disk partitions kind of, and on the next restart you when you insert the new OS disc, you can choose the option to boot from CD... and it will take you to the installation process of the OS from the CD... and you will be able to continue from there...
