Formatting a hard drive along with the install of a new OS is the best option. The vast majority of operating system installations provide a "format" option as part of the installation process.

If you have an external hard drive or USB drive that you cannot format from File Explorer, you can check out this guide. It will help you to format the external hard drive or USB drive using Windows ...

With the release of Windows 8 Enterprise, users finally have the opportunity to run Windows from a USB storage device -- just so long as they own the product license for the operating system. If you ...

To format a hard drive before you start using it in Windows, use the Disk Management utility; on a Mac, use Disk Utility.

There's more to it than you might think. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Knowing how to format a hard drive seems like something ...

Ever wanted a copy of Windows you can take with you wherever you go, to use on any computer you want? It's possible: here's how to install a portable version of Windows 8 on a USB hard drive that you ...