In Windows 7/Vista/XP, it is not necessary to use DiscWizard to format your hard drive. If you are installing the operating system on the drive, you can use the Windows 7/Vista/XP installation CD to format and partition the drive. Likewise, if you are installing a secondary drive on your computer, you can use Windows Disk Management to format and partition your drive. DiscWizard is merely another option for partitioning and formatting your drive.

For assistance formatting your drive in Windows XP without DiscWizard, please see Document ID: 199419
For assistance formatting your drive in Windows Vista without DiscWizard, please see Document ID: 202291
For assistance formatting your drive in Windows 7 without DiscWizard, please see http://support.microsoft.com/gp/windows7

DiscWizard is your best choice if you want your new drive to become the new boot drive.  To do that, the operating system and the files on the old boot drive need to be copied to the new drive.  For assistance copying your data from your old boot drive to your new Seagate drive, please see Document ID: 201991 for desktop PCs and Document ID: 205051 for laptop PCs.

If you want to use DiscWizard to partition and format your hard drive, please follow the steps below:

Installing a new or blank Master Drive (Boot drive):

You may need to enter the system's BIOS and change the boot order or boot sequence before the system will allow you to boot to the DiscWizard CD.

When installing an operating system on a new hard drive, it is recommended that all other hard drives in your computer be disconnected, to prevent accidentally deleting data you wish to preserve.

Creating new partitions or formatting a drive will destroy all data on the drive.

1. You will need to create a bootable DiscWizard CD. For further instructions on creating this CD, see Document ID: 201951

2. If you are given an option to select the "Safe Version" or the "Full Version" of DiscWizard, click on the Safe Version, as you are formatting an internal ATA or SATA hard disk drive.

3. In the "Pick a Task" screen, click on Add New Disc, or click on Operations from the menu bar and select Add New Disc.

4. In the "Welcome to the Add New Disc Wizard" screen, click on Next.

5. In the "Add New Disc Wizard" screen, you should see your hard drive listed as "Disc 1". You should also see any partitions or unallocated space on the drive listed below Disc 1. To continue, select the drive you want to format (which should be "Disc 1" as long as you have no other hard drives connected to your computer) and click on Next.

   If the drive you have selected still has a partition on it, you will see a "Nonempty Destination Hard Disc" screen. This screen warns you that the drive you have selected already contains partitions, and that by continuing, you will delete any information on this drive. If you still want to continue, click on the option to Delete partitions on the destination hard disc and click on Next.

6. In the "New Partition" screen, you will see your drive with its entire capacity as unallocated space. To continue, check the Create new partition in unallocated space option and click on Next.

7. In the "Free Space Selection" screen, click Next.

8. In the "File System Type" screen, select the file system you want to use. It is recommended to select NTFS for Windows 7/Vista/XP. You will have to select NTFS for Windows Vista, as Vista will not install on a FAT32 partition. Once you have selected the file system, click on Next.

9. In the "Partition Type" screen, click on the Primary Partition radio button and click on Next.

10. In the "Size and Partition" screen, you can adjust the size of the partition, as well as the amount of unallocated space that appears before and after your first partition. If you want to create a single partition that is the full capacity of the drive, you don't need to adjust anything here. Click on Next.

11. In the "Partition Label" screen, you can enter a volume label for your drive in the text box provided. This is the name of the drive that shows next to the drive letter in My Computer. It is not required that you enter a volume label; this is an optional step. Click on Next.

12. In the "New Partition" screen, you will see your drive with the partition that is about to be created on it. To continue, click on Next.

13. You will now see a screen stating that DiscWizard is ready to format your hard drive, with a list of the steps that will be performed automatically. To continue, click on Proceed. You may notice that no drive letter is assigned at this point. This will be assigned later by the operating system when you install Windows.

14. You will now see a screen showing the formatting steps being performed. Once this is finished, an information window will open that will show that the new disc was successfully added. Click on the OK button.

15. Your drive has now been successfully formatted. To install your operating system, insert your Windows 7/Vista/XP CD / DVD in your CD / DVD-ROM drive and restart your computer. The computer should now boot to the Windows installation software.

For users who do not want to format an old drive that will be used as a slave drive: To add a secondary drive from another system (old PC) without reformatting, the drive must have an existing FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partition. If this is an ATA drive, the drive must also be jumpered as a slave drive if the primary master boot drive is jumpered as master, or cable select if the primary master boot drive is jumpered as cable select. If this is a SATA drive, you may need to enable the SATA controller in your system's BIOS for the drive to be detected. Physically add the drive to the system and Windows will detect the drive.

1. Open DiscWizard in Windows.

2. Select Tools & Utilities and then select Add New Disc.
   
   
    
3. In the Add New Disc Wizard screen, select the drive you are wanting to format and then select Next.
   
   
    
4. At the Initialization Options screen, select the option to initialize the drive in an MBR Layout.
   Note: If you have a 3TB or larger capacity drive, you will need to select the GPT Layout.
   
   Once you have made your selection, select Next.
   
   
    
5. In the Partition Creation screen, you will see your drive with its entire capacity as unallocated space.
   To continue, select the unallocated space you want to format and then select Create new Partition. You should see the screen below.
   
   
   
   Fill out the options on this screen to your preference and then select Accept, then Next.
6. The Finish screen should display, which will give you a summary of the formatting process.
   
   
    
7. If everything is set up the way you prefer, select Proceed.
   You should see a progress screen, and once it has completed, you should be able to access the drive and use it for storage.
   You can close out of DiscWizard and access your drive in (My) Computer.