How to boot from a CD or DVD in a computer.In your BIOS setup, configure the boot sequence, so the CD or DVD drive is listed first. If you do not see the message Press any key, the computer's boot sequence is likely not set to boot from the CD or DVD drive first. Using the following format method allows you to erase the primary hard drive on the computer (e.g., the C: drive). If you have a Windows recovery disc or a Windows installation disc, you can access the DOS command prompt and erase a hard drive. See our format command page for further information and other options available with this command.The more times you format the drive with the count option, the more securely the hard drive is erased. After the first round of zero-fill formatting, the format process fills every sector with a random number between zero and nine. Replace the count text with the number of times you want the hard drive to be formatted.
The command above tells Windows to format the hard drive (in this case, the E: drive) by writing zeroes to every sector. To zero-fill a hard drive, use the following command at the Windows command prompt. Zero filling makes it impossible for someone to recover data from the hard drive that was overwritten. The zero-fill format option is only available in Windows Vista and later.įor a more thorough erasing of data on a storage drive or device, you can zero fill it, overwriting all data on the hard drive with zeroes.
