Introtohddformatting

Introduction: How to format/partition an existing
Hard Disk Drive

Hello, my fellow knowledge seekers!!!!
Our lesson today will help us to format and partition an
internal hard drive on an existing system. So, why would
we want to do this, you ask? Well, a couple of reasons.
First, you know how you were trying to find that cool
song you downloaded, or that note you made on
organizing your socks?? Well, a new partition might help
you ORGANIZE a little. Dirty word, isn't it?
But if you organize, it will not only help you run faster, but
guess what? Right. Your machine will thank you too.
Computers like organization. K, so how do you do it?? It's
surprisingly simple. I should note here that if you try to
format the hdd your system is running on, format will
FAIL, leaving you yelling at your computer, and cursing
my name!!
We'll be having none of that action!!!

Here we go...
Start>Right click My Computer>Manage>Look on the left
of your screen and click Disk Management Now you will
see your hdd setup on the screen. Right Click the drive
you want to F/P(format/partition) Now , depending on
what you are trying to do, you can either: Format the
partition, which WILL delete ALL files on the disk, so
MAKE A BACKUP copy of any files you want to keep!!!
Delete the partition, self explanitory, OR, if it's an
extended partition(you can tell if there's a green box
around 1 or more partitions), You can delete the logical
drive. HUH?? logica.....is this guy nuts?? Haha, maybe
just a little! But seriously, a logical drive is kinda likd an
hdd within an hdd. These are useful because you can
create an almost unlimited number of logical drives on
one disk, and assign them a drive letter. With basic
partitions, you are limited to 4. Usually, just a basic
partition will be fine for most users, and you can boot
operating systems from basic primary partitions. PLEASE
NOTE: You MUST DELETE the existing partition
BEFORE you can create a new one, so, that's why I say,
BACKUP any files you want to keep!!!

That's simple enough, just go to My Computer, select the
drive your info is on, and copy the files to a
TEMPORARY folder, on another drive, flash drive, cd,
whatever you choose!! When you have your raw image
ready, Click New Partition. Take a second and read
what's on your screen as it will help you decide! Click
Next Now you will select partition type, either basic, or
extended, as explained above. Click Next. Now you will
select your partition size. This ones on you, as to how
much space you need. Just remember 1000 mb = 1
gb(1000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte) So, if you want 15 gb
of storage, you have to have to make the partition size
15000 mb, and so on... Whatever size you want. Get It??
I knew ya did!! After selecting your partition size, Click
Next. (if you want to make it 1 big partition, just click next,
mmmmmkay?
Now you can assign a drive letter, or just Click
Next.(there are some other options, but I've never
messed with them, so I don't know what they do. As I
said, NO expert, just know some stuff!!)

Now you choose how to format, such as NTFS or
FAT32. NTFS is fine for just about everything. Allocation
unit size, not sure, so I leave it alone!! Volume label is
just the name of the volume. DO NOT do a quick format,
there IS a possibility of errors not being found and fixed,
then you start all over when your op system, or software
don't run right!! In the time it takes to do all that, you
could have just done the regular format 3 times over!!
Click Next. Review your choices, Click Finish, bada-bing
DONE!! That was easy, right?? Don't forget to watch the
tutorial VIDEO. Makes things easier!! CCCYYYYAAAA!!!!

G.

Have a specific tutorial
you'd like to see??
Shoot me an email,and I'll
see what I can do!!

Screenshot of disk
manager in action!!

CLICK HERE for the vid