Formatting an OEM hard disk

F

fortyways

banned
My new components are on their way from Newegg. They're all retail components except for the hard disk which is OEM. Apparently this means I have to format it myself. I don't know how. Does this mean I'm supposed to boot it up in a box as a slave drive and format it through Windows? Or will installing Vista format it by itself?

Halp?
 
Boot from the O/S CD, and it will prompt you to make a partition... and format. Format it NTFS... make the partition, and install.
 
If it's a OEM or retail makes no difference. Either way you have to reformat it. All drives need to be formated before installing the OS.
 
Yes, it will be formatted on install, no worries about it, as Paratwa said, retail and oem is the same, and the windows installation will prompt you to create & format.
 
oscaryu1 had the closest answer there. With any new bare hard drive seeing Windows going on it you have to create a new primary type partition. You will be prompted during the installation as the Windows installer displays the total amount of drive space available to either create one single primary for Windows or leave room for later creating a second for things like storing files or even seeing a different version of Windows go on that.

Besides the Windows installer many prefer a separate drive partitioning program either sold retail or something like the free Linux drive tool GParted. In preparation for copyiing the setup files to the drive the installer will then format the new primary created. You partition a drive before it gets formatted not reformatted initially.
 
oscaryu1 had the closest answer there. With any new bare hard drive seeing Windows going on it you have to create a new primary type partition. You will be prompted during the installation as the Windows installer displays the total amount of drive space available to either create one single primary for Windows or leave room for later creating a second for things like storing files or even seeing a different version of Windows go on that.

Besides the Windows installer many prefer a separate drive partitioning program either sold retail or something like the free Linux drive tool GParted. In preparation for copyiing the setup files to the drive the installer will then format the new primary created. You partition a drive before it gets formatted not reformatted initially.
 
Which this to say that an OS disk also has the capabilty to partition and format a hard disk without the need for thrid party software?
 
The newer "full install" not upgrade disks will see the partitioning tool included in the installer. With Vista's installation disk you now see a separate tool where you can even format a partition separate from running the installer along with some automatic repair rools for things like fixing startup problems.

Here the preference will still be using the live for cd version of the Linux drive tool since that can be used for variouis partition types including Fat16 and Fat32 types for the older versions of Windows. Some of those are 3.1, 85, 98, ME. Plus with the XP installer often you would see some 1-8mb of unallocated drive space where a gap would be seen before or after the primary. GParted was then used to expand the partition into the unused space being an independent drive tool.

So far on the installations seen since released almost a year ago now the Vista installer including the previos RC1 beta performed better in that regard.
 
The thing is, Vista never prompts me to format like XP did. It kind of just goes about its business. I'm assuming it does it automatically?
 
yep, it should do it, the part where you choes to install the drive it on you can format there but it will do it by itself
 
vista is easy to install, you basicly just stick the disk in and let it go... just sit back and watch your computer come to life :P
 
The Vista installer will simply install Windows on the existing partition found or display the total amount of space available and create a new primary automatically. The big differences now seen on the installation disk are the automatic repair tools along with being able to separately format and resize partitions as well as create or delete them. It sees a more complete drive tool over XP plus no more recovery console with the automatic fix startup problems tool.

The Disk Management tool is also more advanced in that regard as well. You can now work with secondary partitions as far as resizing those from within Window while not being able to work with the primary Windows is running on.
 
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