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To format a hard drive that you recently added to your Microsoft Windows XP computer is not as complicated as you might think.

A lot of people expand their hard drive space with a new a hard drive typically in a USB or e-SATA enclosure. The problem is many people notice when they open up Microsoft Windows Explorer they don’t see their newly attached hard drive! Your like what gives? Don’t fret, your going to use a specialized tool in Microsoft Windows to get this working!

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Click on Start>Run> type in “compmgmt.msc” and click “OK“.
  2. Then we are in “Computer Management“. Click on “Disk Management” under “Storage” on the left side of the window. A wizard pops up when it detects a new hard drive that’s not formatted.
  3. Follow the wizard and when it is completed the drive to be formatted is initialized. What that means is that it is now ready so we can format hard drive!
  4. The box for the hard drive to be formatted should now have a black bar displaying “Unallocated” under its size. Right click on it and select “New Partition” The New Partition Wizard comes up.
  5. Follow the wizard for that where you can choose your drive letter, volume label (name of drive once we format hard drive), file system (which will be NTFS) and more.
  6. Quick Tip: Don’t do a quick format when you format hard drive. It is best to do a full format for all new drives that are new additions.
  7. You will know when the format of hard drive is done when under the size of the drive changes from “Formatting” to “Healthy“” and the name and drive letter you chose for the new drive is displayed.
  8. Your formatted drive will now show up in your Microsoft Windows XP explorer and be recognized by Microsoft Windows XP :)

Mission accomplished! Well I hope you all enjoyed my post “Format Hard Drive, How To Easily” Video Tutorial! :)

VIDEO TUTORIAL [Please View Fullscreen]

More information:

What Is A Hard Drive Enclosure?
A hard drive enclosure is essentially a specialized chassis designed to hold and power disk drives while providing a mechanism to allow them to communicate to one or more separate computers.

Other Resources On Format Hard Drive

  1. How to Format a Hard Drive With Windows XP
  2. How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP
  3. Format Hard Drive : How to Format a Hard Drive , Reinstall Windows
  4. How to Format a Hard Drive
  5. How To Format A New Internal Hard Drive
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Troubleshooting, Windows

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