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Actually we usually speak of reformatting the hard driveon the computer. The computer's hard drive is the internal drive that has no removable media. On it will be stored the operating system (such as Windows or Unix), most of the applications (programs) you use, plus all kinds of data files. A hard drive is a disk (or set of disks) with a magnetizable coating on which a recording head can write information. Each kind of computer and operating system has its own way of formatting that information, but they all write in concentric circles, grouping the information into smaller blocks or sectors. Before data can be stored on a hard drive (or any magnetic disk, actually), it must be formatted. This process magnetically creates the writeable areas on the disk. To reformat the disk means to recreate these areas, refreshing the disk to a new state. A full format permanently erases everything on the disk as part of the process. A "quick format" may be available, which will not bother to erase everything but will just mark everything as erased, with pretty much the same result. (Custom programs may be able to recover some erased information, but only if it has not yet been overwritten.) Generally, when you reformat a hard drive--at least, the primary drive on the computer--you want to make it bootable, installing on it the components of the operating system that allow you to run your computer.

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16y ago
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12y ago

This is usually done when all hope is done. Like for example files on the hard drive are corrupt or missing but if they have information that they want to keep they should save it to an external hard driver or USB like notes,music,important files, pictures etc. etc.

Other reasons could be change the Operating System or add another Operating to have two working operating systems.

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14y ago

No.


Yes, if you know what you're doing. You just need to remember that everything on your hard drive will be deleted, so you need to back important files up.

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8y ago

No; actually it is free if you know what you are doing/have a Windows install disk.

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9y ago

No. All you need is the Disk that came with your OS and your product key ( A 25 character sticker on your PC)

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Q: What does it mean to reformat a computer?
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How do you erase your hard drive so you can sell your computer?

Reformat it. Google "How to reformat a computer." Or over write it with over write program. ErAce is one and can be found from erace.it


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You can do this from a terminal window, however reformatting the computer will require you to reload the operating system from scratch (and you will lose all your data) before you can use it again.


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If you mean to reformat the hard drive, you need to insert your copy of your operating system recovery CD and reboot the computer.


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total reformat and reinstall. Not a difficult job to do!


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... You mean... HOW TO CLEAN AN INFECTED COMPUTER?- it will be much safer to put all your important files on back-up and try to reformat it, then install an anti virus for future security.


How do you reformat your computer when it is off?

You can't actually reformat when it's off. You'll need to power it up with a bootable CD or floppy disk which has the format command available. Besides, what you are formatting is the hard drive, not the computer. Or you can remove the hard drive from the computer in question and format it in another computer.


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There are various ways to reformat a Kingston SD card. You can insert it in your computer and then right-click on it and click on the format option. This will erase all the data in the card.