How long does it take to format a hard drive and reinstall windows

I am selling my mom my old toshiba laptop but I want to format it first, for the next week or so I am going to be really busy and I need to get this done ASAP, so how long would it take?

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Permalink Reply by Ken on April 28, 2009 at 7:11pm: Its a standard laptop 5400RPM, and just basic drivers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alucard on April 28, 2009 at 7:38pm: lol fail, install takes me 25 min and everything else an hour more at most; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by LADYTECH on April 28, 2009 at 7:54pm: NO, it depends on the speed of the pc !! 2hrs what were u formatting? If you do a standard format it tends to take long and that also depends on the size of the HD. Ofcourse a 160gb will take less time to format than a 500gb. If you do a quick format that tends to be faster no matter what the size. but its still depends on the size of drive but its def. faster.
so end and point ! how long does it take to format and re-install windows (we are not talking also installing anti-virus and all programs)? I say depends on the speed of the pc, and the type of format you use.
On a good pc tops 1hr it has never taken me longer than that>! an old pc with a slow cpu and lacks power FOREVER. Nah, really i dont know. I hate working on old pc's I gave that up along time ago.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by kpslover007 on April 28, 2009 at 7:56pm: It usually takes a good 30-45 minutes when reinstalling Vista/7. Windows XP will take a good 15-20 minutes. Based on my experience installing windows. Ubuntu is a lot faster though. But if you need Windows for anything, then you will have to endure the long wait time.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken on April 29, 2009 at 5:19pm: I would put ubuntu on it but my mom would have no clue how to use it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by slacker|| on April 28, 2009 at 8:04pm: just do this - give yourself an hour one day you arent horribly busy, and that should suffice for format and re-install. then take another day, another hour alloted and do all of the updates and anti-virus set ups. you should be good to go.
of course, if you have a night with 2 hours or so to just bang it out, you might as well get it over with, right?

you will most likely get a consensus of 2 hours-ish.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RicAldr on April 29, 2009 at 1:09am: I just bought a 700gig harddrive and its my first sata drive. I was told it was formatted. I can not send information to it for saving and it won't show in my windows xp right click "send to". It does how under mycomputer though. AIM RicDaRumer if you know how & are willing to help.

Sorry for the hijack.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ron Knights on April 29, 2009 at 3:48am: It takes as long as it takes.

Seriously, you might want to devote several hours for the procedure.

Remember that reinstalling Windows is not just one single step.

First, Windows gets installed, then you have maybe 200 updates, depending on which version of Windows you have.

Microsoft has its own weird way of doing things.

Your computer boots up, and you wait for any signs of update activity.

Then, when you're about to do it yourself, Windows says it's downloading and installing updates.

All too often there will be several different related activities wanting your attention at the same time.

Usually they compete against each other. And they interfere with each other.

One process is still working while the other one wants to reboot your system.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brandon Turnbull on April 29, 2009 at 6:28am: lol thats so true i alwys just turn atomatic updates off and do it myself just to make it go smoother; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Daniel Roop on April 29, 2009 at 3:51am: Using Factory restoret should be straight forward and would take very little of "your time", get it going and walk away. If that's an option for you that is.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sean Moriarity on April 29, 2009 at 5:50am: I say format and install Linux.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RicAldr on April 29, 2009 at 6:03am: I"d like your top 5 -10 reasons somone should go from xp to linus. A side note as well if you run linux secondary to xp; ▶ Reply to This