To reformat hard drive is fairly simple, you just need to bear a few things in mind. I would use reformat to refer to formatting a drive that has had things, data, put on it. You would sometimes want to do this when everything starts to run a little slow. A reformat starts everything fresh.

You need make sure that when you reformat hard drive that you save all your important data. This is the process in Windows 2000.

First step is to save all the data and make sure that you have all the programs you use now ready to reinstall.

Make sure to backup all your personal information. This is the most important, as information that you have created cannot be recovered. I usually have a seperate directory for my files, but if you use Windows they are often in the “My Documents” folder. Copy these to a CD, DVD or elsewhere. Save your Internet browser shortcuts and bookmarks, as well as your email clients settings.

Next, make sure that you have all the disks you will need for the programs you want. If you are formatting a drive other than the drive with Windows or your operating system, skip this step.

If the program comes from a CD then make sure you have that CD on hand. If your Windows needs boot disks, make sure to create them before formatting.

Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs

Note the programs you see in there. Do you still need them all? Check you have disks or setup files for all of them.

You can see in Windows Explorer that I have seperate partitions for different things, which eases backup up my data.

Next, to back up your settings from Internet Explorer.

To back up your favorites from Internet Explorer.

Open Internet Explorer and click: File >> Import and Export…

Welcome screen.

Select “Export Favorites” and “Export Cookies”.

Select “Favorites” to back up all your bookmarks.

Choose where you would like to save the results.

Click on “Finish” to complete the process.

Now, safe in the knowledge that all your important things have been saved, you can proceed to format your hard drive.

If you are doing a fresh install of Windows and reformatting everything skip to Page 5.

If the drive you are formatting is not the drive with Windows you can format from within Windows.

Click on: Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Computer Management >>Disk Management

Right click on the drive you want to make a partition on and select “Create Partition”. It will guide you through all the things you need to do to make a partition and format it.

Just create a primary partition.

Choose the maximum space if you want just one partition, less if you want to make another one later.

Choose a drive letter, or accept the default that the computer will give you.

Choose the file system. Windows needs NTFS, but you could also use FAT32. I would just go for NTFS, unless you have a reason for need a FAT32 drive, like maybe if you share data with a Linux installation on the computer.

Review the details.

Wait for a while as the computer goes through the process of formatting. (Could be a very long time on big drives)

Wait for it to finish, then all is done.

If you have just formatted your Windows drive you will need to reformat and reinstall Windows.

If the drive has Windows on it then you will need to format at startup.

Insert the boot disk or bootable CD in the drive.

Restart the computer.

Follow the instructions on screen.

First screen

Insert the startup disks one by one. Windows XP only needs the startup disks if your computer cannot boot from CDROM.

Press “Enter” to continue.

You now get the choice to make a partition. A partition splits your physical hard drive into more than one drive. The computer will “see” each partition as a different drive. I like to do this to give my data it’s own drive for convenient backup. If you are unsure, just create one large one, the full size of the disk.

Next, is to choose the partition to install on and reformat it.

Once that’s done you will see a list of the partitions you have made. Press “Enter” for the one you want to install Windows on.

You have to choose NTFS for the Windows install.

Watch it format. This can take a while.

It then copies the Windows files to the hard drive.

Take out the floppy disk and reboot.

When it’s done, it will continue with the Windows installation.

Once Windows is all installed you need to reintall all your programs and put your internet bookmarks back.