Today I'm encountering a redefinition of "format the hard drive." The new definition adds that at the end of the format the machine boots Windows.

Why this matters is that installing Windows is a rather long process where we can trip it up by formatting the drive before the install, leaving USB sticks and printers plugged in and a rather long list follows.

Here's how to format most drives from a bootable CD -> http://www.ehow.com/how_2133457_reformat-hard-drive.html

Bob