"setting up" an OEM drive

[marcplante]

I'm getting ready to update my computer and have bought

Mobo
CPU
RAM
HD.

Current box is fine, but getting flaky...running Win XP sP2

Are OEM Hard drives formatted?

Is the process as simple as starting up the PC with the new OS disk in the DVD drive?

or should I format it in my current PC using XP, then rebuild the HW and restart with the Win7 disc to install the OS and get it to recognize the new HW? Yes, I realize I'm using an RC, not commercial SW?

Is there a best sequence to set this up?

Thanks,

Marc

 

[shabby]

Oem hard drives are not formatted, you'll be asked to format it during the install procedure.

 

[marcplante]

Strange. This one was formatted. The Win7 disk just copied files and I was done...too easy.

8^ D

 

[hclarkjr]

same here, when i bought my WD black on newegg it was formated also.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
same here, when i bought my WD black on newegg it was formated also.

That's bizarre. You got a customer return then.

The only HDs that should come formatted from the factory are USB external drives.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
The only HDs that should come formatted from the factory are USB external drives.

Yeah, seems odd. I can't recall ever seeing a factory-formatted OEM hard disk, including recent WD, Hitachi, and Seagate disks. A client recently put a new WD 750 GB disk into a SATA tray (used for backups) without telling me, and backups started failing because the disk wasn't formatted.

 

[tomt4535]

The Windows setup probably formatted it automatically and you didn't even notice it.

 

[chrisf6969]

Originally posted by: tomt4535
The Windows setup probably formatted it automatically and you didn't even notice it.

Yep.