reformating

**moving-target** · 11-12-13, 01:39 PM

so while i wait for UPS guy to bring me my copy of win 8.1 i wonder if i can re reformat my broken version if i can get to a DOS /command promp i treid formate /:c but that didnt work so dunno what else to do

**Partyball** · 11-12-13, 01:46 PM

Use the install disk to do it.

**moving-target** · 11-12-13, 01:52 PM

so i need to wait for my copy of windows?

**WileECyte** · 11-12-13, 01:53 PM

Delete the Partition You Plan on Installing Windows 8 Onto (Step 11 of 32)

You can use the Win8 installer to do this. I can't remember if you have to click 'Advanced' when it comes up, but you will likely want to delete all the partitions You should likely see 2 partitions a 'System Reserved' partition which is a couple hundred megs and your main C: partition which should be the remainder of the disk. Delete both, and create a new partition. The installer will create both the 'System Reserved' partition as well as the main C: partition. That will effectively get rid of your old Windows install completely.

**moving-target** · 11-12-13, 02:02 PM

yeah i just wanted to make sure i cleaned the drive completly been so long since i installed windows like 4 years heh

**Phyrelight** · 11-12-13, 08:00 PM

Yup what wile said, you select advance on the installer and delete all partition, then click new and it will re-partition it and then fresh install.

**RhysJD3** · 11-13-13, 11:16 PM

Is it an SSD or standard drive?

If it's an SSD, you want to try to get a tool that preps it. It's different from erasing a "standard" drive. It will basically clear all the blocks and put them into a ready to write state (or something like that). There are tools that will do that and securely wipe the drive of any data. The company you bought it from probably have tools on their site for handling SSD's.

For a standard drive, formatting doesn't really erase it. If you want it securely wiped, there's utilities you can download to write 0's or 1's across it. BUT DO NOT USE THAT ON AN SSD DRIVE. You'll shorten the life. See the above paragraph and download a utility specificy for and SSD.

If you don't have an SSD, you may want to think about getting one. Hugh difference in load times in games.