how to format a hard drive?

Question

i have some older hard drives out of other machines and want to delete everthing (all includeing os) i would not waste my time but these are large hard drives.
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Answer 1

Install extra hard drives on your machine after shut down and removing power.
Boot up windows
Click start-->control panel-->performance and maintenance-->administrative tools-->computer management-->storage-->disk management

All your new drives should show up here. Right click on them to show your options. You can perform all the operations you need to do here.

Otherwise you can create a windows 98 boot disk and do all that from DOS. Just know that the above method will create more options as to what format the drive will be formated in. NTFS and such. Formating with the 98 disk will create Fat32.
The command in DOS is
format X: /s
where X is the drive you want to format, avoid formating your C:!

Answer 2

Formatting and Installing from the Windows XP CD
Instructions
STEP 1: This section explains how to reformat a drive from the Windows XP installation CD. This can be used when installing a fresh copy of Windows onto a computer. Here it is especially important to backup all of your important information because upon formatting you will lose EVERYTHING that used to be on the drive. This includes all applications and device drivers, so you must backup everything you can. STEP 2: Insert your Windows XP installation disc into your CD drive (Home or Pro it does not matter). STEP 3: Restart your computer. On the first screen that comes up as your computer starts it should say at the bottom a key that you can press to change the Boot Sequence (may also be called Boot Device or Boot Order), press whatever key is specified. If your computer does not give you the option to change the boot sequence directly from the startup screen you will need to enter your BIOS Setup by pressing whichever key your computer specifies for Setup, and then from the BIOS setup you need to change your boot order so that the CD drive is before Hard Disks. If all you see right when your computer starts up is a splash screen with the computer manufactuer's name press the 'Esc' key to display which keys to press for boot sequence or BIOS setup. STEP 4: Now as you computer boots a little more it will say “Press any key to boot from CD..” press a key to do so. STEP 5: The CD will load up a blue screen and then spend a while loading files it needs. When it is finished it will list a few options mainly “Press ENTER to set up Windows XP,” press Enter or Return. STEP 6: Now you will be at a screen to select where to install Windows to, this is where you can delete old partitions and format drives. The box in the bottom half of the screen shows all your drives and the partitions that exist on them. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to highlight your “C:” partition and press the 'D' key (if all that shows up is “Unpartitioned space” and you have no C: or D: partitions skip this step). On the next screen press the 'L' key to finalize deleting the partition. STEP 7: Now you are back on the screen to choose where to install Windows. The box on the lower half of the screen should no longer show a partition but simply have an entry “Unpartitioned space xxxxxMB.” Select this with the arrow keys and press the 'C' key to create a partition on the drive. The next screen tells you the minimum and maximum sizes the partition can be and lets you pick the size. The default size is the maximum, but double check that the number entered is the maximum and hit enter. STEP 8: Now you will again be back at the choose where to install Windows screen only this time you will have a partition that looks something like this “C: Partition1 [New (Raw)] xxxxxxMB.” Highlight this entry and press enter. STEP 9: The next screen lets you choose which filesystem to format the drive with. If your computer will be sharing files over a network with a Windows ME, 98, or 95 computer select “FAT32” otherwise choose NTFS as it is faster and more secure. If the drive is brand new and has never been used before then use one of the options that ends in “(Quick)” otherwise choose one of the lower down options. Use the arrow keys to select the proper one and press Enter or Return. STEP 10: From here you are all set and the installation of Windows will proceed starting with a format of your drive. This will take a while (over half an hour) so you can go take a little break.

Answer 3

Open your computer.
Disconnect your CD drive.
Connect one of the hard drives in its place.
Boot the PC
Should saw up as whatever letter your CD drive use to be (D:)
Rightclick on it and Select "Format" from the menu
When done, shut down, remove, and repeat with the next drive

Answer 4

build a simple box out of spare parts with a Mboard ram cdrom etc. boot to your xp install disk or a bootable Harddrive tool disk (usually available from HDD manuf.) or a bootable cdrom from a 3rd party software maker that provides a universal type HDD toolset with large volume support.
Or, install one disk at a time as a slave in your machine, and right click 'my computer' and select 'manage'. once that opens select disk management in the left pane - you will see your drive that you need to repartition and format. ALWAYS TURN OFF PC AND UNPLUG IT BEFORE SWAPPING OUT HDD's! there the small print warning is out of the way :)

Answer 5

Right Click on my Computer and select format. I would save anything that you want to keep first......Good Luck

Answer 6

Right click them, then click complete format or just format! Either way, they get erased!! They have to be pluged in first!

Answer 7

Get the that you used to install your computer. Put it in and follow their instructions. Thats what I did about a million times. Or you can buy the CD if you didn't get one or if your computer was ready to use.