Formatting the hard drive

[JoeK210185]

I tried to format my hard drive and it wouldnt let me, how the hell do i do it without it saying close all programs that are on the drive or something, ive shut them all down, AVG, MSN and so on there all shut down an yet it still wont let me format!

[Alan]

You can format your hard drive two ways.
If you just want a clean install of windows, then insert your operating system install disc into the CD drive and restart the machine. Windows will warn you that all will be lost if you proceed (it will format before installing).
If you just want to format the hard drive full stop, then you need a boot disc, if you hav'nt got one you can download one from www.bootdisk.com.
Restart your machine with the bootdisk in the floppy drive.
When it loads, type C:/ and press enter.
Now type format C and confirm that that is what you want to do.

[JoeK210185]

If i format my hard drive, is there ANYTHING i can keep? i only want to keep one file, its a big file like but can i keep it? does format also get rid of all the desktop and all "my Documents"

[Alan]

Joe, if you format your hard drive all is lost, operating system, programs, files, everything goes!
if you have a partitioned drive then only the partition you format is wiped.
Can I ask, what do you want to format your drive for?

Regards