I'm changing a HDD on a Compaq machine (from the original 30GB to a used 160GB Barracuda) and during the XP setup phase, it's taking an unusually long time to perform an HD format (not quick format) ...

Data privacy is important ...

If you have an external hard drive or USB drive that you cannot format from File Explorer, you can check out this guide. It will help you to format the external hard drive or USB drive using Windows ...

Most external hard drives come formatted with the FAT file system, which makes the drive compatible with multiple operating systems. As such, the drive is immediately usable out of the box. If you ...