Windows XP / 2000 - Format Harddisk

With formatting all your data on the chosen harddisk will be deleted without the option of getting it back. After formatting, you will not be able to completely retrieve all data again.

Format older Windows systems (95, 98, ME) or harddisk, floppy disks or memorycards without windows system?
Read more here.

To format the chosen harddisk with windows, put in the Windows installation cd and restart your computer. Beware! With formatting the disk all data and programs on the harddisk will be deleted forever! The computer will start now from the installation disk, or will give you the option to start from this cd.

After the startup from the CD, the Windows Setup menu will appear, when you want to install windows. Before the install, you can choose for the option to make the harddisk FAT32 or NTFS.

First menu; (click for image)

In the next screen you can choose, if the last Windows on your pc should be repaired, or if there should be a clean windows install after the format (ESC key). Now you can delete the previous Windows version and choose where the new one should be installed (normally c:).

(Click for full image)

Now the option of choosing for either FAT32 or NTFS comes. While Windows 95/98 used FAT32, Windows 2000 and XP use normally the newer NTFS. Windows XP can work under FAT32, but there can occur problems with bigger data, like movies or images.