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
I have a labtop Dell Inspiron v10. I've tried to format the hard drive a couple of time but always happen the same. At the end of the format process (Step 5), the screen turn black, and you can only see the cursor. I do not know what to do?, I am not sure If it formatted or not?. What do you recomend me. Almost 3 hour and it is frozen.

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