Out of all the reasons why people call up on a computer technician, formatting a hard drive is probably one of the most common. Out of all the typical issues that will bog down the performance of a computer, many can be fixed by formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the Operating System.

Regardless of the scenario above, the overwhelming majority of inexperienced computer users still don’t quite know how to go about formatting their hard drives and reinstalling their OS. That’s such a shame! You don’t have to spend any money to get this task done, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of hours; in fact you can even set things up so that next time the computer will just reformat itself (check the last section of this guide to see how).

So let there be no excuses: it’s about time you learn how to re-format and reinstall your own computer, and this guide will show you all you need to know, step by step.

No worries, by the way… it’s highly unlikely you will break or damage your computer, while trying to do this. There is some chance that you’ll accidentally erase data if you’re flying blind… but not if you start by following the first step below.

Part 1: Backup

The single most important thing to do before attempting to format your hard drive is to backup all your current data. If you get this step right, there’s almost no chance you’ll stumble into trouble going down the DIY avenue. Worst case scenario – if for some reason you do not succeed at formatting and reinstalling your OS, you can call it quits anytime and head out to the computer shop with your computer and your backup, and they’ll know what to do.

So, how do you ensure you properly backup all your data? Well, if you’re looking for a 100% fail-safe procedure, just get an external hard drive that’s bigger than the hard drives in your computer, then copy all data to the external drive.

If you are proficient enough dealing with computers to know where all your files and documents are, it should be quicker — just copy what you need to the external drive, selectively. Here’s a pro hint for Windows users: everything you see in your Desktop as well as your “My Documents”, “My Music” and similar folders, is stored in a folder called Users that’s always located in the root of the partition where your current system is installed.

Part 2: Preparation

Ok, so when you’ve made sure to backup all your data, and after you’ve double-checked to make sure you didn’t forget to backup anything important – this is where the adventure begins.
To format your hard drive and reinstall your Windows OS, the main requisite is having is the system installation disk (either the one that came with your computer or a new one you bought from the store). In newer laptops you won’t even need that DVD, since they usually have all the installation files in a hidden partition; in this case, you just have to hit a certain key after turning on your laptop, as we’ll explain in the next step.

By the way, if you’re about to format and reinstall the system on a laptop, make sure you plug the charger in so the computer won’t die during the process – that could lead to unnecessary trouble; a halted installation will usually resume from where it left off, but very occasionally something could go wrong and require more advanced intervention to finish the process.

Part 3: Format & Reinstall

To get down to action, you just need to boot your computer through the installation DVD. If your computer seems to refuse to boot through the DVD and instead goes through the hard drive as usual, that’s easy enough: you just have to change the boot device order and put the DVD drive first. To do this, hit F2 right after turning on the computer and you’ll access the blue BIOS menus; there, just navigate to one labeled “boot” and make sure the DVD has the top spot.

In some computers, there’s an even simpler shortcut to change the boot device order: try hitting “Tab” or “Esc” a few times after turning on the computer. If it works, you’ll get a quick selection menu showing your available boot devices, and you can just pick the one you want.

Also, if you’re using a relatively new laptop, maybe you won’t even need an installation DVD. To learn this, Google (the model of your laptop) +”system recovery hotkey”. Once you learn what the hotkey is (often it will be F9 or F12), just hit that after turning on the computer… and basically the computer will magically restore itself after a few simple prompts.

Once you’ve booted through the installation DVD or the recovery partition on your laptop, Windows will literally take you by the hand until the entire process is finished.

You’ll essentially be asked to enter your name, Wi-Fi password and choose the disk (or partition) where you want to install Windows to. Rest assured: this part of the process is very intuitive and straightforward.

Part 4: Settling In

After going through the installation process and showing a few key prompts asking for your information, details, etc. – your computer will reboot, and when it comes back on you’ll have a fresh installation. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to settle in on your new system: copy all the relevant files and documents from your external backup drive, and install all the programs, codecs and such that you normally use.

It’s worth taking an extra hour to get everything conforming to your taste, especially since there’s a final step you can do to make sure the entire process can be 10 times simpler and faster, next time you want to format and re-install your computer.

(optional) Part 5: Set up Drive Image
Using a program like Acronis True Image or Paragon Backup & Recovery, you can create an image backup of your newly formatted hard drive with sparking new Operating System. That means you can later use the same program in any occasion to restore your computer to this fresh formatted state, at the click of a button – rather than going through all the steps in this tutorial once again.