Im installing Windows 7 on a new hard drive for my laptop... how can I format this blank drive in NTFS? NO OS? -

OK, so I just got a new hard drive for my laptop so I could install Microsoft s Windows 7 Beta on it. Here is what I have done. Put in CD for Windows 7. Turn laptop off. Take out my drive with vista on it. Put in completely blank drive. (no operating system) Turn on laptop. The setup runs, but when it asks me what partition to put it to, (There is only one, since the drive is blank) I chose that one and it says that the drive needs to be in NTFS format not Primary. Can anyone help me with a free program that I can burn to format the drive? First answer that works gets the 10 points.

I have not used the windows 7 install disk but if it like the other windows install disks you should be able to select that partition (if it over 16GB) or delete the current partition and use the whole hard drive. When it asks about format say yes NTFS. It will format the entire drive and you are on your way. If you have only 1 partition on the drive it will be a primary partition and you can format it to any file system you want, like NTFS. If you want to try another program (free) try gparted. It will partition format and more.

Then there is a problem, as on installation, a blank drive will be formatted as appropriate for the Operating System during the set-up phase.