FORMATTING THE HARD DRIVE OF YOUR LAPTOP

FORMATTING THE HARD DRIVE OF YOUR LAPTOP.

You have tried to remove a computer virus or worm from your laptop but you still are not
satisfied with the performance, a total format of your hard drive which will get rid of the
virus is necessary though this action will make you loose all data relevant or not on your
hard drive. The first thing you have to do then is to back up the data you have and then you
save your laptop from the attack of aliens.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE FORMATTING

1.Make sure you have the discs for any applications or third party hardware you use since
you will need to re-install your programs and drivers after re-installing Windows.

2.Think of anything that you have on the computer that you wouldn't want to lose and
remember that each user on the computer has his or her own My Documents folder, Desktop
items and Favorites/Bookmarks.

3.Save everything to a CD, DVD or a hard drive that you won't be formatting.

4.Get ready for formatting.


NOW FORMATTING


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

2.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.

3.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.

4.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.

5.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.

6.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.

7.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.

8.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.

9.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.

Thank you for learning about LAPTOPS from LAPTOPLEMANA, the laptop experts.
To make complete or touch on all the aspects of this topic I will be writing
on formatting from an installation disk. We at laptoplemana are trying to make any
owner of a laptop be on top of using his brain machine.

courtesy: www.wikihow.com