Newbie here looking to format my PC's hard drive.

Golden said:

Hi,

By low level format, do you mean a QUICK format? If you have bad sectors, you are better off doing a FULL format.

If you do use a QUICK format, you will need to run a CHKDSK /R at a later stage anyway to address bad sectors:

FULL FORMAT = QUICK FORMAT+CHKDSK/R

Regards,
Golden

I thought Low Level format was a full wipe of your HD? I briefly read it zeros out your hard drive.

But anywho, I'm looking to fully wipe my HD. I removed all of my files already.

Try clean all in command prompt.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Golden said:

Hi,

All formatting is a wipe of your hard disk, but only a FULL format will mark bad sectors not to be used - this is why it takes so long.

Seeing as you have identified bad sectors as being an issue on your hard disk, I recommend a FULL format to take care of them.

Regards,
Golden

So how do I go about that? Keep in mind that I may not be able to get back as I might be in a start up loop. Is there a program?

So I was able to get to the command prompt and eventually CLEAR ALL my HD. It's working as we speak. I have a few questions that hopefully I can get answered before its done:

-Prior to the CLEAR ALL, I had 3 partitions - is it just now 1?

-If so, how many partitions do ya'll recommend? The sticker states 320 gb. Should I create a separate partition for Windows 7?

-How should I go about the installation?

IMO, I would make two partitions.
one for Windows 7 size 100gb
Two for for DATA.

what about "system reserved"? Is that necessary?

The F8 options work with or without system reserved, up to you.

So the clean all was a success, and now a i created a primary partition labeled "Windows 7" and is now formatting.

Once its done formatting, do I assign a size?

And how do I create a "Data" partion? Can I do that after I install Windows 7?


BTW, thanks for everyone's help. You all have been a great help!