Editing Disk formatting (section)

== Reformatting {{anchor|REFORMAT}} ==<!-- incoming links -->
Reformatting is a [[#HIGH|high-level formatting]] performed on a functioning disk drive to free the medium of its contents. Reformatting is unique to each operating system because what actually is done to existing data varies by OS. The most important aspect of the process is that it frees disk space for use by other data. To actually "erase" everything requires overwriting each block of data on the medium; something that is not done by many high-level formatting utilities.

Reformatting often carries the implication that the operating system and all other software will be reinstalled after the format is complete. Rather than fixing an installation suffering from malfunction or security compromise, it may be necessary to simply reformat everything and start from scratch. Various colloquialisms exist for this process, such as "wipe and reload", "nuke and pave", "reimage", etc. However, reformatting a drive containing only user data does not require reinstallation of the OS.