will it take information on it after or do i have to do something special ?
2007-05-24 13:51:21 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
The format process prepares the drive for storing your data. Part of this process is eraser of everything on the drive. If you are using XP, right click on my computer, select manage, select disk management. You can format the drive from here. After the format is complete, make sure to make it active.
If you are thinking of installing programs on the external drive, understand that they will work on your system only, and will be slower than if installed on the system drive.
2007-05-24 14:02:34 · answer #1 · answered by THE ONE 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This really depends if you installed software to the external drive. Normally, you would probably install software to the C: drive of your PC. Most people probably use external drive to store large files such as music, pictures and movie. Some use external drives for backup also.
To verify if you installed any programs there you could try disconnecting the external drive and then checking to see if there are any programs that do not work. If all your programs work correctly then I would assume that you don't have any programs install on the drive. Go ahead and reformat the external drive. You should be able to use the drive after formatting and assigning a drive letter to it.
2007-05-24 21:05:52 · answer #2 · answered by mrfunatl 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Normally external Drives are used to save Data , music, pictures etc,. It has no Operating system or anything like that. The Operating System simply sees it as another Drive. If you reformat the external drive then obviously all the files, data, media, pictures etc that was on it will be lost.
After reformating it you can use it again to save your data , media, pictures and other such files. The main purpose of the external drive is to act as a storage volume. It can also be used as a back up to an existing computer.
Normally an external Drive does not need specific software to make it work with an existing computer.
2007-05-24 21:02:23 · answer #3 · answered by ArnieSchivaSchangaran 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I recommend that you use Windows to uninstall any programs on the external drive before reformatting it. This will keep Windows on your primary drive from having inaccurate installation information. If you reformat the external drive, there will be no data on it..... You can do whatever you want with it.
2007-05-24 21:05:21 · answer #4 · answered by Neil L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your external driver does not need any driver to load or you have not installed software on that then you need not to install any software after reformat it.
2007-05-24 20:55:28 · answer #5 · answered by chintu 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Reformatting any kind of drive will erase everything on it. If you do, back-up all you files on some other memory device first.
2007-05-24 20:56:23 · answer #6 · answered by acsmichigan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything on the drive will be erased when you reformat, email me if you need help.
2007-05-24 20:54:29 · answer #7 · answered by Buckdog06 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No
2007-05-24 20:54:57 · answer #8 · answered by Cupcake 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋