Emily Long is a freelance writer based in Salt Lake City. After graduating from Duke University, she spent several years reporting on the federal workforce for Government Executive, a publication of ...

Before we begin, it’s important to know that formatting a drive will erase everything on it, so you’ll want to make sure that you back up or save anything that you don’t want to lose. After you’ve ...

If you’re installing a new hard drive, or need to wipe your drive clean for that “fresh” feeling, you’ll end up formatting your drive. Formatting will check the drive for errors, and prepare it for ...

There's more to it than you might think. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Knowing how to format a hard drive seems like something ...

Amid the widespread shift to subscription-based cloud storage solutions, relying on good-old physical drives can be a reassuring sense of independence. Whether you're trying to repurpose an old hard ...

Many businesses protect confidential data stored on computers, particularly laptops, by encrypting the hard drives. This works well until you lose or forget the encryption password, which may happen ...

Formatting your hard drive is very useful. It’s good for clearing everything off a secondary drive or when installing a new copy of Windows. Formatting is also good for cleaning up storage issues, ...