by Jason T

Created on: May 12, 2010

There are several ways to correct computer problems. One way to do this would be to reformat the drive. This particular way will fix any problems on that drive. So if Windows is “acting up” reformatting the drive and reinstalling windows would be the ultimate fix. 

This can be a very painful process or a very simple one. It might be painful if the user has installed everything to one drive, or only has one drive partition to use. To make this process extremely simple, a user must take certain steps. 

There are a couple of main steps to simplify this process. One step is to make sure the hard drive is divided into multiple partitions. One partition, being the Windows drive, should be at least 20 gigabytes to run properly, name this partition Windows drive. If a user has any remaining drive space that should be partitioned into another drive that is separate from the windows drive, any name is acceptable. The reason for this is if anything goes wrong with the Windows that drive can be wiped out and reformatted to fix any Windows errors. 

To reformat the Windows drive a user can insert the Windows disk and restart the computer. This will prompt the user to hit any key during the start-up to run from the disk. This will begin the installation process of Windows. It will ask the user to select the partition for Windows to be installed onto. If the above directions were followed then a user would select the Windows drive to install the new Windows onto. Format the partition in NTSF format, selecting the full format option instead of the quick option. 

After this has completed the Windows installation will begin. Just follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation. After this is finished the computer will have a fresh copy of Windows installed and will run smoothly. 

If the user is attempting to format drive that does not have Windows installed on it, the user can click on the start menu, and go to the control panel. Once in the control panel, click on the administrative tools icon, and then click on the computer management icon. On the left side under the storage area click on the disk management tab this is where the available drives will be shown. 

Once the drive desired to be formatted is selected, right mouse click on it and select format. Select the options desired and click Ok to begin the formatting process. This will erase all data on that drive. The drive can then be used for anything needed.

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