How To Formating Secondary Hard Drive

Formatting a Secondary Hard Drive

Step1

Right-Click on the “My Computer” icon either on your desktop or in the Start Menu and select “Manage.”

Step2

A new window titled “Computer Management” comes up. Select “Storage” from the left hand side by clicking it once, then select “Disk Management(local)” from the right side by double-clicking it.

Step3

Now in the lower part of the main frame (right side) of the window you should see a nice visual of all your hard drives. Each line is a different drive. Each box on a line (with a colored bar at the top and a size displayed in MB or GB) is a partition on the drive. Partitions are separations of space on a drive. Unless you are doing something specific that requires multiple partitions, you only want one partition per drive.

Step4

First you must delete any existing partitions on the drive you are going to format. Do this by right-clicking on the partition's box and selecting “Delete Partition...” Since you already know that you will be deleting everything on the drive, and have already backed everything up, you can safely say yes to any warning the computer presents you with.

Step5

If there are multiple partitions make sure you have saved everything off them since they might each have different drive letters (i.e. “D:” or “F:”). Then repeat the above step for each of them. If you only want to format one partition that is OK and you can continue to the next step without deleting the other partitions.

Step6

The box for the drive to be formatted should now have a black bar at the top of it and should say “Unallocated” under its size (see picture). Right click on it and select “New Partition...” The New Partition Wizard comes up.

Step7

In the New Partition Wizard click next. On the next page make sure “Primary Partition” is selected and click next. Now make the size equal to the maximum (it should already be set to it), and click next again. On the next page the computer will automatically choose the first available drive letter for the new drive. However, if you like you can choose another drive letter from the drop-down menu, and then click next.

Step8

Finally the New Partition Wizard asks if you would like to format the new partition and if so what format. Choose “NTFS” as it is faster and more secure. Leave the “Allocation unit size” as “Default.” In the “Volume label” field enter whatever name you want the drive to have. Simple is better. Avoid using spaces. Lastly, if the drive is brand new and has never been used before check the “Perform a quick format” box. If the drive has been used before leave this box unchecked. Leave the “Enable file and folder compression” box unchecked and click next. Then on the next page click finish.

Step9

The wizard will now spend a little while formatting the drive. On old or large drives this may take a while. Do not close the “Computer Management” window until it finishes. You will know it is done when the word under the size of the drive changes from “Formatting” to “Healthy” and the name and drive letter you chose for the new drive show up. After it is finished you can proceed to use your newly formatted drive.

Credit TO:www.ehow.com

How To Format Mac OS 9

Formatting with Drive Setup

Step1

Use the Drive Setup application with Mac OS 9 whether you're setting up a secondary drive or reformatting your system drive. The main difference is that if you are going to reformat your system drive, you must boot off a system CD because you will have to reinstall the Mac OS 9 (or whatever operating system you are going to use). If you are not formatting your system drive, skip the next step.

Step2

Insert the system CD into your CD drive and restart your computer to boot off of it. From the second the screen goes blank and starts to boot, you must hold the 'c' key down until you see the little happy Mac picture come up. On some older (pre-G3) Macs, you hold down the open-apple (aka Command) key down instead of 'c'.

Step3

Insert your Mac OS 9 System CD if you haven't already because you booted off of it. Open the CD and open the “Drive Setup” program, which is in the “Utilities” folder (also usually in a “Utilities” folder on your main hard drive).

Step4

Click on the drive you wish to format and press “Initialize...” after the Drive Setup window opens showing you a list of the drives installed on your computer.

Step5

Click Custom Setup at the bottom of the “Initializing will destroy all data on the following volumes:” window that pops up.

Step6

Select “1 Partition” from the “Partitioning Scheme:” drop down menu unless you are formatting the drive for some sort of special setup (such as a future installation of OSX). Select “Mac OS Extended” from the “Type:” menu. In the “Size:” field, enter the number from “Total Capacity:” (the computer may change the number to make it slightly smaller to properly fit). Now press “OK.”

Step7

Click “Initialize” when you are back at the “Initialize” window. The computer will format the drive and return to the “Drive Setup” window which should say “Formatting...” for a while and once finished display the message “Initialization was successful.”

Step8

Reinstall your operating system, now that your drive is fully formatted, if you booted off your system disk and reformatted your system drive.

Credit To: www.ehow.com

How to Format a Computer with Windows 95, 98, or ME

To reinstall Windows, you will need a Startup Diskette and a Windows Installation CD. 

Download the Startup Diskette Creator

Note: We recommend using the Startup Diskette available on this page. Other Windows Startup Diskettes may not work with the following steps.

1. Once you have your Startup Diskette, insert it into the floppy drive and restart your computer.
   
   
2. Select option #1 - Start the computer with CD-ROM support.
   
   
3. After a minute or so, you will see "A:>_".
   
   
4. Type "fdisk" and press Enter.
   
   
5. If asked to enable large disk support, select Y for Yes. (Note: Some versions of Windows 95 may not be compatible with large disk support. Select N here if it does not support the FAT32 file system.)
   
   
6. Select Option #1 - Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive.
   
   
7. Select Option #1 - Create Primary DOS Partition.
   
   
8. The drive integrity will be verified.
   
   
9. Unless you are planning to make multiple partitions, select Y when asked if you want to use the maximum available size for the partition and to make the partition active.
   
   
10. The drive integrity will be verified again.
    
    
11. When completed press the Esc key to exit fdisk.
    
    
12. Without removing the floppy disk, press the reset button on the computer or press the keys Ctrl then Alt then Delete and release them together. This will restart the computer.
    
    
13. Again, select the option to Start the computer with CD-ROM support.
    
    
14. When you see A:>, directly above it is a message about your CD-ROM drive. It will tell you the letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive, take note of it. 
    
    
15. At the A:>, type "format C:" and press Enter.
    
    
16. Press the Y key then the enter key when asked if you want to proceed with the format.
    
    
17. The format will probably take some time, so be patient.
    
    
18. You will be asked to choose a Volume Label, which is a name for your hard drive. It has no effect on the operation of your computer, you may choose any name you like.

credit to: www.whitecanyon.com

How to Format a Computer with Windows XP

1. To format a computer with Windows XP or 2000, insert Windows CD and restart your computer.
   
   
2. Your computer should automatically boot from the CD to the Windows Setup Main Menu.
   
   
3. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
   
   
4. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
   
   
5. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.
   
   
6. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition or the unpartitioned space where you want to create a new partition. Press D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition.
   
   
7. Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then press ENTER, or just press ENTER to create the partition with the maximum size.
   
   
8. Select the format option that you want to use for the partition (Recommended: NTFS), and then press ENTER.
   
   
9. After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to continue installing Windows.