Format hard disk without operating system - so it'll work

To format a hard drive without using the computer's operating system, you need an external boot medium.

Format the hard drive without the computer's operating system

You can format a hard drive without your computer's operating system running - for example, if you suspect that your computer or an external hard drive is infected. In addition to the installation disk of your operating system, various tools and live CDs (e.g. KNOPPIX / UBUNTU, etc.) are also suitable. We will show you this using the example of the live system GPARTED.

1. If you do not yet have GPARTED, you can download the ISO image from GPARTED and then burn it to a CD or DVD. If you would prefer to run GPARTED from a USB stick, download this version.
2. If you want to format an external hard drive, then connect it to your computer.
3. Now start your computer from the GPARTED CD or USB stick. It may be necessary to change the boot order in your computer's BIOS accordingly.
4. Accept the settings suggested when the system was started or adjust them if required.
5. After GPARTED has started, select the hard disk to be formatted from the overview. Since GPARTED is a Linux-based system, the data carriers are labeled as devices (/ dev / sda, / dev / sdb, etc.).
6. In the overview you can now see the partitioning data of the selected hard disk. If you would like to accept this, you can reformat the individual partitions by right-clicking and selecting "Format to:". To delete, simply click the [Delete] button instead.
7. To create new partitions, click on the free area (unallocated) and use the [New] button to select the size and the file system to be created.
8. To make all changes so far, click the [Apply] button.
9. Shut down the system by clicking on the [Exit] icon if you do not want to carry out any further formatting.

Read here how you can format a hard drive in Windows 7.