How to Format a Computer with a Windows Vista Operating System Disc?

Many times you might have had experienced your computer becoming badly affected due to Trojan viruses and the only option to make it work again was to format the system and reinstall the operating system. The first thing to realize here is that it isn’t the system that is going to be formatted but the hard disk is. The operating system, all the software, data and even viruses primarily affect the hard drive and formatting the computer would erase everything present on the drive.

How to Format Your Computer Hard Drive?

There are different ways in which formatting a hard drive can be done and one such method is formatting partial fragments of the drive with the operating system. This method involves right clicking on the drive that has to be formatted and then clicking on the format option. However, this method only works for drives which do not contain the operating system. If complete formatting is to be done, then Windows Vista or any other operating system would also be reinstalled. In fact, the Windows Vista operating system disc can be used to format the computer and the following lines provide information on how this can be done.

Important Tip: Before formatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system, Windows Vista or any other, it is a good idea to have the utility driver disk present beforehand or even download the drivers from the internet for the hardware to work. Some important drivers include that of motherboard, soundcard, graphic card, video card, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in case of a laptop etc.

Steps To Format the Computer Using Windows Vista OS Disc

Here are the step-by-step guide to format your computer with a Windows Vista OS disc:

1. Checking The Compatibility of the system with Windows Vista

The first thing which should be done is to check the compatibility of the computer system with the new Operating system. If Windows Vista was the original OS then this step could be skipped but if it wasn’t then the following steps should be followed:

• First get a lab test of System Requirements done to find out the things that the computer can do and the things it cannot do.
• If the computer fails the test then it has to be upgraded (mostly RAM and Chipset) which can be assisted through a computer technician offline or by checking online forums.
• If the system has passed the test then the next step could be proceeded to.

2. Saving all the Necessary Data

There are two cases in this part, if the matter has been corrupted with the virus and if it has not.

• In case the formatting is done just to reinstall or upgrade the operating system then the information and data present in the hard drive has to be backed up. This can be done via external hard disks and DVDs or VCDs.
• If the matter in the drive has been corrupted with the virus then saving anything would allow the viruses to continue which could make matters again difficult in the future. In this scenario, no backup is required.

3. Using the Disc

This step is where the Windows Vista Operating System Disk is going to help. Before starting, always remember that Window Systems run on NTFS partition system and if the option comes between NTFS and FAT32, the former option should be chosen. Now, put the disc of Windows Vista into the CD or DVD drive and then restart the system.

4. Setting BIOS settings

When the computer has restarted, set F2 or F12 to go to setup or the boot menu. This is done to change the system settings so that the computer knows that the first thing which has to be accessed is the disc in the drive. To change these settings, the BIOS settings and menu has to be accessed properly. If you are unsure about the BIOS system settings then keep a manual guide in hand before attempting it.

5. Formatting and Installing

Save BIOS and again restart the system. An option would come up to boot from the CD or DVD drive (usually by pressing the space bar). After the CD is accessed, the DOS system checks the disc in the drive and then presents a series of options that should be selected. The first thing would involve entering the CD key of the windows setup to ensure that a genuine operating system is being installed. The system would then ask if the installation has to be done automatically or custom. Select the latter.

6. Select the drive in which the OS would be installed

The drive that is selected would be formatted and the system would ask if the whole system has to be formatted or not. Select the appropriate option and then press enter.

The question might come up for NTFS versus FAT32 drive partition and the former should be chosen. After choosing these options, formatting of the drive and selecting the options necessary, the system would take on the whole process and the drive would be formatted. After that, select next to continue with the installation of the operating system. The time taken here depends upon the computer’s performance and speed and it can be anything from 25 minutes to one hour.

Reinstall All Your Drivers

After finishing all the copying of the files and setup, the system would restart into freshly installed Windows Vista Operating System.

After that, the first thing which should be done is driver installation. If there is the Utility Driver disk for that computer, then it should be inserted and the whole setup would be concluded automatically. In case the driver disk doesn’t work, then the user would have to take over the setup by getting the drivers from the web and then install them one by one.

Don’t Forget Your Antivirus

In case the system was formatted due to virus concerns, install a good antivirus this time around which provides total protection from disks and internet coverage too. The aforementioned steps would ensure that the formatting and installation of the operating system on the computer goes by quite easily and without any loss of important information.

Wrap Up

Sometimes you just have to format your computer and reinstall your operating system but it should always be your last resort. Looking after your computer will not only prevent errors but it will also speed your computer up and have it running smoothly.