|
|
|
|
|
Important Tips on Formatting Laptop Hard Drives
|
| |
Laptop hard drives need to be formatted for many reasons. Heavy usage, installing and removing large numbers of programs and virus attacks all affect functioning. You need to format hard drives in case you purchased a new one to replace a failed drive. When you want higher storage capacity then again you need to format them.
Often you need to re-install the operating system if required. Using Windows installation disk or software provided by manufacturers makes it easy to format. Here are tips to know how to format laptop hard drives.
- Ensure hard disk is installed properly in laptop. The drive cannot be formatted before it is installed or if it's not installed correctly.
- Gather the required software. The type of media will depend on the hardware in your laptop. Laptops running Windows XP require the installation CD and product key.
- Place the installation disk or software in the drive and then boot the computer. The installation process will detect any installed hard disks and allow them to be formatted. The manufacturer’s software also detects hard disk to give you the option to format.
- Determine which file system is to be used. Windows XP will either work on a NTFS file system or an older VFAT file system. Choose the desired file system when prompted.
- Decide if the whole disk is to be formatted or if it’s to be partitioned and each partition is to be formatted separately. A menu-driven utility creates hard disk partitions before formatting.
- If the hard disk is being formatted to replace an existing Windows installation, delete the existing partitions and re-create them.
- Format the hard disk with the Windows installer when prompted. The Windows installer will let you know when it is time to format the disk and ask for confirmation.
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
