How to completely format a SATA hard disk drive to its full capacity by deleting its MBR
120NOTE: The method shown in this video is intended to format a SATA hard disk drive (HDD). If you are formatting a IDE (PATA) hard drive, and would like to both SCAN for bad sectors as well as work around bad sectors (should your hard drive have any), then I recommend watching the longer, more detailed version of this video available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbS7KIpenk
NOTE 2: This method will ONLY function for hard disk drives of 2 GB or less in capacity. If your hard disk drive is over 2GB, rather, view the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wng5ILjJPto
WARNING - I will NOT be held responsible for any damages the methods shown in this video may cause to yours or someone else's computer, hardware, software, and/or data, including loss of use of such devices and/or loss of data and/or loss of profits from the resulting inability to use such devices and data. Any information or program you choose to put into use from this video is done AT YOUR OWN RISK. As a precaution, I recommend backing up any irrecoverable data before practicing any of the methods shown in this video.
This video will show you how to completely format a SATA hard disk drive (HDD) to its full capacity, erasing everything on the hard drive to then be used in a Microsoft Windows environment (for which you own the ORIGINAL Microsoft Windows installation disc). This video applies to users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This will ensure that your format is complete, fresh, and will not carry anything over from previous formats to the new format. In order to do so, we will be deleting or erasing the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the hard drive, which in turn eliminates all previous partition information (even hidden partitions) and allows for the creation of entirely new partition(s), which also reclaims and uses the maximum capacity of your hard drive. In order to do so, your computer will have to have an optical drive, such as a DVD ROM drive. This will also require access (even temporary access) to a computer with high speed internet access and minimally a CD burner (writer, recorder) and an empty CD-R or CD-RW disc.
This video ALSO covers the partitioning of a hard drive to install multiple versions of Windows on the same PC computer, creating a mult boot or dual boot environment.
Since this video covers so much ground, I have noted which timestamps to fast forward to in order to jump ahead to a specific tutorial:
0:00 - Introduction
2:40 - Downloading, extracting and burning Hiren's Boot CD
11:20 - Booting Hiren's Boot CD and configuring your BIOS to boot primarily from the optical drive (CD-ROM)
15:00 - Clearing the MBR using Ranish Partition Manager
18:50 - (With your MBR deleted) How to use Microsoft Windows to create one or multiple partitions, including how to install multiple versions of Windows to create a multi boot environment