Q: I was planning on doing this because lately, it has become really cluttered and bogs down my computer. There are literally hundreds of files and folders I have no clue what they are for so I want to just wipe my hard drive clean. I'm not selling the hard drive to someone so it's not like I need to hide anything, I would just like to start from scratch again. Will doing this make my computer run smoother/faster because I've got more than 10gigs of fragmented files that the disk defragmenter can't defragment. So, can anyone tell me everything that happens when you format your hard drive? Does it erase my operating system (Windows XP) so that I will need to re-install it? Does it do anything else to the system besides deleting files? I would like to know everything that happens before I decide to do this. I have the Windows CD, but could you explain what the drivers CD is? Oh, thanks Michele because the last thing I want to do is cause even more problems with my computer.
A: It erases your hard drive and every thing on it. You will have to reinstall your windows operating system and all your drivers (video, audio, network card,etc...) . Do you have all the drivers and the windows cd. Once you format your hard drive you can't go back. If you didn't get a recovery cd or a windows cd you can't reinstall the windows because you have no windows cd. Ask one of your buddies to reinstall windows and by looking at your mainboard or video/audio cards they should be able to figure out all the drivers and download them. Unless it is a really really old computer. Look in the device manager. Find the drivers first before formatting and download them.