format in another pc

Absolutely! A HDD can be formatted in any machine.

not to step on ebackhus's toes,

but not only can it be formatted in any machine, i find it's easier alot of times, to simply power down my main machine and pop in the drive of another machine i am working on, just so i can format it from within windows.

also, at the same time you can load certain data onto it, like drivers, and tools, to make it easier once you have something installed on it.

i find it formats faster from within windows, and i like the gui partition manager better than the dos one.

How do I format the hard drive from outside windows, as the system won't boot with the hard drive?

If you install the HDD in a working PC as a slave drive it will boot from your main and then you'll see it in "My Computer." From there you right-click and select Format...

thecrashball said:

How do I format the hard drive from outside windows, as the system won't boot with the hard drive?

Click to expand...

you'll either have to put it in a machine that will boot, and format it from within windows, the way me and dai have explained, or use a boot disk, or a bootable cd-rom disc.

if you want a bootable floppy, www.bootdisk.com has many many boot disks.

your windows cd has the partition tools on it, as well as being able to boot.