HOW TO FORMAT A PERSONAL COMPUTER
Steps on how to format your personal computer 1. Backup any important data. Formatting your drive will delete all of the data on it and remove the operating system. Make sure that you have any important files backed up to another location, such as an external drive or the cloud. If you're trying to securely erase the data on a drive before disposing of it, see the Securely Formatting a Drive section of this article instead. 2. Insert your Windows installation disc. You'll be using your Windows installation disc to format your drive. This is the easiest way to format the primary drive, as you cannot do this from within Windows itself. You don't need to use your own installation disc, as you won't actually be entering a product key (unless you proceed with reinstalling Windows). If you can't find your installation disc, you may still have options depending on your version of Windows: Windows 7 - You can download an ISO file for Windows 7 b