Formatting a hard drive along with the install of a new OS is the best option. The vast majority of operating system installations provide a "format" option as part of the installation process.

When buying a new computer or laptop, the latest operating system is often already installed. If not, and you have the original media that the OS is on, you can perform the installation yourself. For ...

Many computers these days come with two hard drives, one SSD for fast boot speeds, and one that can be used for storage. My Dell G5 gaming laptop is a great example with a 128GB NAND SSD and a 1TB SSD ...

One of the advantages OS X has over Windows is the easy ability to install OS X on practically any supported local volume, meaning that regardless of the hardware, if the volume can be mounted locally ...

Like Lion (OS X 10.7) before it, Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) doesn’t ship on a disc—it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store ...

Sometimes installing OS X may result in odd behavior if the partition scheme on the drive is not set up properly. If you are experiencing problems, a simple repartition during setup may be an easy fix ...

OS X Mavericks is officially out and ready for the public. It’s the latest OS X version from Apple and it comes with a heap of new features, including improved support for multiple displays, desktop ...

Good news, netbook users: There’s a reasonably easy way to install the Windows 7 Release Candidate, even if you don’t have an external DVD drive. As you may recall from yesterday, Windows 7 gets ...

In pre-xp pc's I have always (given a separate partition and sufficient space) copied the whole OS cd to hard disc, <BR>a) to reduce use/potential loss/damge <BR>b) much faster installs <BR>c) ...

[Editor’s note: This article is part of our series of articles on installing and upgrading to Lion (OS X 10.7). We also have a complete guide to installing and upgrading to Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8).] ...