Question about pre-formatted hard drives.

[Fenix Darkblaze]

So, I'm looking to build my first computer from scratch. It's going good so far, and I'm ordering my hard drive fairly soon. I'm pretty sure this is a pretty dumb question, but here goes.. When I buy a pre-formatted hard drive, is all I have to do pop in the OS CD and install to get it running? I have a new copy of Windows XP, and I need to know if there's more to it than just inserting the CD and installing the OS. Thanks in advance!

 

[Trotter]

I always format my drive, whether it was formatted beforehand or not. I prefer to know the disk is clean. You will have the option to format the drive when you install XP.

 

[kimsland]

If the drive is pre-formatted, it likely has Fat32 on it

Fat32 formatted drives are ideal for external HardDrives as they will work on all Windows computers
But normally, if you get a new Internal Hard Drive you should format it to NTFS
In your case, put the Windows Setup Disc in the drive and when you get to the stage of removing the partition do that
Then allow Windows to continue Setup, Windows will automnatically create an NTFS formatted drive during the Setup