FORMAT C: Format your harddisk or USB flash-drive

When you format a harddisk (HDD or SSD), an USB flash drive or a memory card, all the data on your chosen disk will be deleted, without an option of retrieving it again. Formatting the disk is a good option, when you want to have a clean new install on your pc or want to delete all data on that computer completely.

Harddisks or USB memory sticks that don’t have any operating system on them, can be easily in the windows explorer: Open your computer drawer in Windows and select the drive that you want to format (be careful: All datat will be deleted!).

Format a harddrive with a Windows operating system on it

The harddisk that contains an operating system cannot be formatted as easy as normal memorydisks. If you want to re-install your Windows, you can start the PC with your windows installation disk: Insert the boot disk in your CD drive and select the option to start from CD/DVD. Before re-installing Windows you can format your drive:

 
Format a Windows XP PC:

 
Format a PC with the free DBAN app:

If you don’t have your Windows bootdisk ready or just want to delete all your HDD’s data without reinstalling the Windows system, you can use the free DBAN app: First, burn the DBAN image onto a CD or DVD and restart your PC with the disk inserted. Instead of booting Windows, it should start DBAN: Here you can format the drive and delete all data: