How do I reformat my harddrive?

I'm wanting to get rid of everything on my harddrive including windows 7 and everything so that there are no files left and i can reinstall windows 7. How do I do this?

 

You really should not have to uninstall Windows 7 completely to reinstall it; and if you are using a Windows PC to try to remove any parts of that operating system from your hard drive, Windows will not let you. It is sort of a "Self-Defense" Mechanism. If you are using a Linux Based system, then you would have no problems. You can re-install your Windos 7 right on top of the old version if you'd like? I would recommend doing this instead.

 

I have to disagree with dragonrider65 you can certainly delete everything during installation if you choose.

Do you have a full Win7 installation disc or is yours from a computer manufacturer like Dell or HP? (There is a difference between Factory recovery discs and Win 7 retail installation discs)

Here is a general step by step you could start on about step 8. If you have any questions please ask about details.

 

im looking to reinstall it but i want to clear my hard drive of everything thats on it. I also have a retail disc.

 

Look at this guide in step 10 you choose Drive Options (advanced) then in the next step 11 you can delete each existing partition in the list. This clears all data.

Then You choose to let Windows use the unallocated space for the new install. It will create new partitions and format them for you.

 

Well, that was pretty much what I thought you were talking about; deleting everything off of the hard drive as if it were "Fresh Out Of The Box", right? You can install your new disc on top of the old Operating System, apparently that is what Sach was talking about...? But if you want to erase everything on it as if it were brand new, you can do that by installing it temporarily in another computer and accessing that hard drive as Drive "D" or "E" or whatever. I have done this and ran into problems using Windows Vista to delete an old Vista installation off that hard drive; Windows would not let me access the Operating System files and when I talked to friends here at ITT Technical Institute this afternoon, they agreed with me because Windows has a self-defense mechanism that will not allow you to "Accidentally" erase necessary files in case you didn't mean to. If you put that hard drive into a computer running a Linux based OS, then you will have no problems erasing everything on it, including Windows OS Installation files, because it doesn't care what those are. I would recommend just installing your new Operating Disc on that hard drive and choosing "Clean Installation" when that window opens up. Having old files or whatever on that hard drive is not really that big a deal, man.