The formatting utility on the operating system disk that came with your computer is a useful tool for recycling hard drives; it reformats the drive and resets it to an unused state. The utility included with your operating system disk is simple and straightforward to use, but you can still format a hard drive without it. Free utilities are available online that make formatting a hard drive an easy, visual task.

Terminology

A hard drive is a physical object--the hardware that sits in the computer. A partition is a section of space on that hard drive, represented digitally by a partition table. A file system is an information format written onto a partition. Most hard drives have two to three partitions. When you format your hard drive, you will delete all the old partitions on the hard drive; then, you will create a new partition and format it with a new file system.

Formatting your Hard Drive with GParted

GParted is an open-source, user-friendly application that is free to use and download. Download GParted from gparted.sourceforge.net and create a bootable CD from the image, then boot your computer from the CD to start the program. If you have more than one hard drive, select "Devices" under the GParted menu and pick the hard drive you want to format from the list. A graphical representation of the partitions on the selected hard drive will appear in the main window. Click on each partition, then press the "Delete" button. Once all the partitions have been deleted, select the unallocated space and click "New" to create a new partition. The data on your hard drive is not being deleted during this process, you are simply redefining the partitions. In the new partition window, choose the file system to write to the new partition. Set the partition as the "Primary Partition" and make the partition the maximum possible size. Click the "Add" button to close the menu then click the "Apply" button to format your hard drive. Until you click the "Apply" button in GParted, no changes will be written to your hard drive. You can safely exit GParted at any time without formatting your hard drive if you don't apply your changes.

Security Considerations

Formatting your hard drive will corrupt any data already on the drive. Always back up your hard drive before formatting! Formatting your hard drive will not delete old data from the hard drive; a skilled computer user can recover personal information from a formatted hard drive. If you are disposing, selling or otherwise getting rid of your hard drive, use a hard drive "scrubber" program to properly erase all the data on your hard drive. Using a "scrubber" will ensure that your personal data is kept safe from hackers and other malicious computer users.

Source:

GParted Project Page