formatting a HD without reinstalling windows

[memory]

My friend may be buying a new computer and he would like to take the HD out of the one he is using now and use it as a backup in the new computer. How would he go about formatting the HD without putting windows back on? It is possible isn't it?

 

[Trizoy]

Plug it into another computer as a slave and format in the windows environment...
OR
Get a boot disk from www.bootdisk.com (prefer win9x) and do it in the command prompt

 

[memory]

How do you put it as a slave? Are you talking about the jumper on the back of it? If so, how do I know which one to move it to?

 

[Impulse666]

Set the jumper to "Slave" or "CS" and put it on the middle connector of another IDE drive in another computer, or if its SATA you won't have to worry about any of that just plug it in.

It will say somewhere on the HDD itself how to set the jumpers correctly.