I have a brand new external usb hard drive. device manager shows it being there and operating properly but it doesn't show up in my computer. Ive been told it needs formatting, can anyone tell me how to do this step by step, Steve Morton

Right-click My Computer and select "Manage". Then click on Disk Management. Right click on the drive you wish to format, and select Format. Some people are like Slinkies™, not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs...

You can use and old ways to format that drive. First you must have CD XP pro which is different serial number from yours and bootable version. Restart your computer, and press dell to get the bios setting. set your first boot is cdroom, and exit. after restart you should get to the xp installtion. follow the instruction. and format your hard drive.

Very dangerous advice from yohanneswoo10, especially for someone who's obviously on the foot of the learning curve and not too sure what he's doing yet, and I'm not sure it would work anyhow ! Also, whats the business with another copy of XP Pro with different serial No.? A new one on me, and all XP CD's are bootable anyway. Hooner is correct but presupposes that the drive has already had a partition created on it which, if it's brand new, it probably hasn't and therefore you will have to do this first. It's pretty straightforward, right click on the drive, create partition and just follow the defaults. Because it's a new drive with nothing on it it's an ideal opportunity to experiment with partitioning and formatting, you won't do any harm and could learn quite a lot. If you want to read up on the subject a Google search for "Partitioning Tutorial" will bring up any number of pages dealing with the subject. Good luck and don't be afraid to come back and ask for more advice if you need it.

I agree with Kinel, yohanneswoo10 doesn't know what the hell he is talking about. All XP cd's are bootable, and what the hell does Dell have to do with the price of beavers in Bangkok. Some people on this forum give advice as if they know what they are doing, when in fact they don't know s--- from shinola. Hooner and Kinel are exactly right, and doing as they have suggested will leave little or no room at all to damage your system. As for you yohanneswoo10, back away from the crack pipe and just say no to giving anyone advice on computers. lol! Please use the "Alert Me" button in the top right hand corner of this post if I can assist you further. Wesley Johnson

Thanks for all the advice the first was easy and all is well thanks Steve Steve Morton

Good point about the partition Kinel, I need more coffee :-) Some people are like Slinkies™, not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs...