Formatting 2nd hard drive

[mag921]

I just added a 2nd hard drive. Can I format (erase) the 2nd (slave) hard drive only. I don't want to lose any data from my old HD, but the 2nd drive is used and I want to completely erase it. I may just be being paranoid, but I just wanted to make sure.

[Steve]

Yes you can. Which operating system are you using?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

It's really simple but if you do it from within Windows it is very easy to format the wrong drive. This is especially dangerous to do if it is Windows 98 and older. If your boot order in BIOS is set to boot to HDD-1, it boots to the slave drive but calls it C: :eek: Then you'd end up formatting D: drive which contains your os.

Safest way is to remove the master drive and put the slave as master and use a startup disk or an operating disk of ME or newer, such as XP. But if you are confident in your settings and you've explored the drive to be sure it is the one you want to format, it can be done from Windows.

That said, I never do... :D

[Paul Komski]

Tip. Always give your partitions labels with meaningful names when you format them and make a mental note of the size of the partition. Both of these factors along with the actual format type can help you differentiate partitions at a later stage. As FTT says it is very easy to scrub the wrong partition or drive by mistake unless you are quite sure of what you are doing.

If you are actually going to erase/zero the drive it is even more critical that you don't get it wrong. A "deleted" partition can quite easily be recovered as long as nothing is written over the area but an erased/zeroed partition is another matter.

[mag921]

Thanks. I am using Windows ME and know which drive is which. I was just getting a second opinion. Thanks again.