FAQs About Erasing Your Hard Drive

The action of destroying files on a hard drive is called formatting. Formatting a hard drive allows the erasure of the data and the preparation of an IT support by writing a file system on it so that the operating system of the computer used (PC or MAC) can recognize it. This is an irreversible operation, meaning that once the hard drive is formatted, there is no way to back up and restore the erased data.

Q: How do you back up personal data?

A: The simplest way to do so is to have two different hard drives or partitions. If you do, then it is very easy; simply copy and paste files to on the other partition or second hard drive to keep them safe. If you have a DVD burner on your computer, just prepare a folder with all your files, and then burn it to a DVD-R or a DVD-RW. If you do not have a second partition, a second hard drive or even a burner, you may use the old floppy drive to back up documents and small-sized files. You can also create a virtual hard drive on the Internet to backup your files.

Q: Quick or regular format?

A: For all formatting operations, you can find two options "quick format" and "normal format." Quick format only erases the files from the chosen partition, however, it does not scan the disk for bad sectors, so choose this option only if your disk has been recently formatted and you are not worried about it receiving damage.