No need to create a partition to transfer files, But its usually best to have atleast two partitions that way you keep a backup on one incase one gets corupt you simply format 1 partition instead of the entire drive Otherwise you can just install windows and use windows update to find drivers for your hardware. I will cover the formatting of the hard drive along with the installation of windows O/S below.Īnd yes you can use these steps if you have just a single drive, just make sure to install all the drivers that came with your motherboard, if you have an inbuilt soundcard the cd with your mobo will have the drivers on it. The next method is for formatting your primary or master drive and the best way to do this is to do it as a part of your windows installation. You can now format from here by simply typing format followed by the drive letter. To enter command prompt simply click start then run and enter “cmd” (without the “”) this will then bring up the command line. The next way is to format your hard drive via command prompt. Remember when using this method you must close all applications and files that are being run the computer from that drive otherwise you will not be able to proceed with the format.Ģ.

Its also best to click the quick format option as this will dramatically reduce the time it will take to format the Drive. From here you can select the format type Fat 32 or NTFS ( NTFS the most common these days as its much faster than Fat 32) Simply go into My computers then right click the specific Hard drive you wish to format then simply click Format.

To format a Slave Hard drive (Not the hard drive with your current Operating System) you can simply format the drive in two ways, these methods areġ. Formatting via windows graphical user interface FORMAT HARDDISK/ HARDDRIVEĭepending on whether you are formatting your master hard drive or slave hard drive the ways of formatting will differ.

How to format my hard drive using cmd