How to Format a Disk
- 1). Insert the disc you wish to format into the proper drive. This can be a blank rewritable CD, DVD or a floppy disk. In order to format a rewritable optical disc, you will need to be using a proper burner. A CD burner will not be able to format DVDs while a DVD burner will be able to handle both CDs and DVDs
- 2). Navigate to the "Computer" menu. This is usually found on the desktop. On newer machines, for instance those with Windows Vista or higher, this menu may be located in the "Start" menu under "Computer."
- 3). Right-click on the drive that contains the disc to be formatted. The name of that drive will depend on your specific hardware. Right-clicking will open up the contextual menu.
- 4). Click "Format" from the contextual window. The format dialog box should pop up giving you several format options.
- 5). Click "Full" or "Quick Format." A quick format, like the name implies, is a much faster format, but it may not fully erase all the data on the drive, leaving it accessible to file recovery software. This may not be the best choice you are looking for privacy and security.
- 6). Click the confirmation button. This will begin the format process. This may take some time depending on the type of disc and the speed of your computer.
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