How To: Format a hard drive using Windows Vista

Formatting the hard drive on Windows Vista is easy. First click Start, then Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. When that opens up, click Storage Disk Management. This will open a window showing all the computer's partitions. It isn't possible to format C: because that is where the operating system is installed. We will format disk 2. Right click on that, and select New Simple Volume. This will open the wizard. Follow the prompts through the wizard to Finish. The computer will take a few minutes to format, when it is done you can check it in My Computer.