My new computer (new ground score) pentium4 (+pic)

[greenlight]

I just picked up my neighbor's old computer from debris day. You're not supposed to put computers out, you're supposed to recycle them. Well, I know better than that. I got a dell Optiplex 260, works great, I can even read my neighbor's email (boring).

I added an old hard drive to check its contents. It was just junk, so I want to format it. That's the question: How to format a hard drive?

Please respond if you have any good information.

Thanks,

I also scored these speakers

 

[highorder]

Re: Is there a best way to format a hard drive?(My new ground score)

easy. right click the start buttom, right click the C: icon, click format.

 

[greenlight]

Re: Is there a best way to format a hard drive?(My new ground score)

Ok, that worked. I'm having fun playing around with my new computer. It has a dvi out, so I'm going to try to hook it up to an LCD monitor.

 

[James S]

Re: Is there a best way to format a hard drive?(My new ground score)

if you mean the difference between a fast format and a low level, zero all data or a scan for bad sectors, then it really isn't necessary to do anything more than a fast format. The low level formats take forever and dont necessarily test all they disk surface anyway.

If there was data you were trying to wipe out form sector readers you'd want to do multiple random writes to every position on the drive. But that doesn't apply here.

So just do a fast format and get back to important stuff like web surfing

 

[Trashman]

Where's chill valley? The neighboring city to mine has 5 "clean up" days starting next month (one a week, on friday). People come from all over LA County (other too, I bet) to pick up junk. It's like Christmas for scrap collectors and trash diggers! There will be like 40 cars and trucks just patrolling the whole area all day and night long. It's loads of fun. I usually make a bunch of extra money. (if I make over $50, I'm stoked. Made close to $200, during one night last year) Some guys, the ones without regular jobs, can make between $500 and $1000 in just one day (they get all the stuff that gets put out early, while people like me are at work.). People from all walks of life join in, from soccer moms driving BMWs to people working in flower shops (me). It's pretty funny to see a itty bitty sub-compact car with 7 foot sofa on top of it! I gotta remember to bring my camera this year, to show you all what goes down.

 

[greenlight]

:touche:

 

[greenlight]

Clean up day is awesome. I always have a big pile of junk to put out, and I usually do it a couple of days early to see what people will take. There's ususally some good stuff, but people will take junk, too. Sometimes my pile is stuff I picked up from other peoples's

I usually pass up a lot of stuff because I'm trying to not accumulate things, I only take things I need. Anyway, did I mention that I'm really happy with my computer? I didn't want to buy one, I was hoping for one to fall into my lap. Well, it did.

chill valley is my home town, it's a cool nickname, but it does get chilly here.​