Format your laptop without a CD - how it works

You can also format your laptop at any time without a CD. How you do this depends on whether you can still start your operating system or which partitions you want to format on the hard disk. We present all possible solutions in this article.

Format laptop with Windows without CD

• If you can still start Windows and do not want to delete the system partition, you have formatted your laptop in no time:
• How to format your hard drive within Windows, read in a separate tip. You can also find detailed instructions in our picture gallery and video:

Mac & Linux: How to format your laptop

• You have to do it differently to format a Mac. Read the exact steps in the article.
• On Ubuntu you can use the "GParted Live" tool. Alternatively, follow our guide to format your hard drive on Ubuntu.

Format laptop via recovery system without CD

Some manufacturers now supply their laptops with a so-called recovery system, from which you can also format the hard drive. Lenovo notebooks have the OneyKey recovery system here, while Samsung also offers a recovery solution.

1. If you want to use the integrated recovery system, first shutdown and restart your laptop.
2. Shortly after switching on, you will see (usually at the bottom of the screen) which key you have to press for the recovery system. Most of the time, this is an F key. Press this key before the text disappears.
3. Shortly afterwards you will be in the recovery system of your laptop. Here you can repair Windows or format the hard disk.

• Tip: If your laptop does not have a recovery solution, you can create a recovery partition manually for later cases.

No recovery or Windows - what now?

If you do not have a working operating system (or you want to format the system partition) or have a recovery system installed on the laptop, you can still format it. However, this is not possible without an external medium. If you don't want or can't use a CD, all that's left is a USB stick:

• In a comprehensive guide, we show you how to make a USB stick bootable so that you can start it outside of Windows.
• The section on emergency systems for the USB stick is particularly important: Here we present the GParted tool, which you can use to format your laptop.
• We explain in another tip how to format and partition your hard drive with GParted. Outside of the system, the procedure is slightly different - what you have to consider there, read in the appropriate article.

Formatted laptop - so on

Once you have fully formatted your laptop, no operating system is installed. Nothing works without this. You should therefore set up your notebook right away:

• Windows: You can reinstall Windows 7 using the USB stick. We also have corresponding instructions for Windows 8.
• Alternatively, you can install Windows on the USB stick instead of on the laptop. Then always start the operating system using the USB stick.
• You can read how to install Linux on a laptop using a USB stick in an extra tip.
• You can also install Mac and Linux on the stick.