HOW TO FORMAT A LAPTOP WITHOUT A CD

Formatting a hard disk drive (HDD) on your laptop will erase any files, programs and operating systems that the drive contains. Doing so will leave this hard drive completely blank and the files cannot be restored. The hard drive that contains the version of Windows that your laptop is running cannot be formatted without a Windows CD. Any other hard drive on your laptop can be formatted without a CD.

 

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Hard drive
• Windows

Show More

Instructions

1. • 1
     Start your laptop and click the Windows "Start" button on your desktop. Click on the "Control Panel" button on the right side of the menu that pops up.
     
     
     
   • 2
     Click on "System and Maintenance" in the "Control Panel" window that opens. Continue to click on the icon labeled "Administrative Tools" from the list of icons in "System and Maintenance."
     
     Open the "Computer Management" window by double-clicking it in the "Administrative Tools" window. You may be asked to enter your Windows password to continue. If so, enter your password to continue.
     
     
   • 4
     Click on the "Storage" link and click "Disk Management" in the new window to open a list of storage devices connected to your laptop. Locate the hard drive that you wish to reformat and right-click on it.
     
     
   • 5
     Click "Format" in the gray pop-up menu that appears and click "OK" in the window that opens. Click "OK" in the warning box that appears to begin formatting the HDD on the laptop. Windows will format the drive automatically. Restart your computer once the process has finished to complete the format.