How to clean a hard drive...?

[Ninti the Mad]

I want to totally wipe out my old hard drive but I forgot how to reformat it so everything gets deleted instead of just overlapping windows over windows.

Any help! Soon!

[DS]

Depending on if you have an NTFS or FAT32 drive. (If you need to find out, just open up My Computer and click the drive you want to reformat once, on the left side, under the details tab, it will say what file system you're using.

For NTFS go here: http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/reformat-NTFS-XP.html

For FAT32 go here: http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/reformat-FAT32-XP.html

[Ninti the Mad]

Whats the difference?

BTW, I just reformatted. I just did the old format c: thing in DOS.

Thats how I was taught. I just couldnt remember but then it came to me.


Whats the difference?


Just curious.

[Kapoutman]

NTFS and Fat32 are just two different ways to manage files. There are more securty possibilities in NTFS, that's pretty much all.

[DS]

Yeah basically that, if you're ever going to reformat again, format it to NTFS. Better option of the two.

[CREDO]

I find that a good scrub with a clean rag will do the trick, Ooo shiney

[Mike the Metal Ed]

NTFS and Fat32 are just two different ways to manage files. There are more securty possibilities in NTFS, that's pretty much all.

NTFS can handle larger files, too, I believe.

[Kapoutman]

NTFS can handle larger files, too, I believe.
Technically, both file system are supposed to handle files as big as the hard drive. Sure, it takes time to open and it has more chances to crash in FAT32, but both system are just ways of pointing to the next cluster where the file is.