how do i format a hard drive?

[tahu191]

i need to make a program to be able to format a hard drive. how would i do this?

 

[rfaricy]

The easiest way:

Sub FormatDrive(driveLetter As String)
    If MsgBox("Are you sure you want to format the " & driveLetter & ": drive?", MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation Or MsgBoxStyle.YesNo) = DialogResult.Yes Then
        Shell("format " & driveLetter & ":")
    End If
End Sub

Tweak arguments as desired to bypass the confirmations, etc.

Other more complex ways involve using the Shell32 SHFormatDrive Windows API (along with Kernel32's GetDriveType). But if all you need is a simple format and nothing else, this will get you started.

An example of the API method is here, thought it will need slight tweaking to be VB.NET friendly:
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=1371

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

I would use the API so the user has a familiar dialog box to work with

 

[tahu191]

thank you, it seems to be pretty simple for what i need