How Do You Reformat a Dell Computer?
When a computer encounters a major problem, such as a virus, it may be necessary to reformat the hard drive–to erase its contents entirely. Dell packages recovery disks with all of the new hardware it sends out to customers. These disks make the formatting and operating-system re-installation process relatively simple, even for users who don’t have much experience with computers. Modern Dell systems place restoration programs directly onto a separate partition on the hard drive, as well, increasing the convenience. Back up all important data on the system, including e-mails, spreadsheets, documents, images, web-browser bookmarks and other personal files. Copy these files to CD or DVD, copy them to an external hard drive, or upload them to an external server. Disconnect all external peripherals other than the keyboard and mouse. Removing this hardware speeds the reformatting process. Insert the recovery disk that came with your Dell computer into your CD drive and reboot the machine. A
