Formatting a harddrive

[lee_30]

Hello,
Will formatting a hard drive wipe all the files off it. My windows OS is not working properly and I was wondering if I format the drive will I lose pics etc?

 

[graywolf]

Yes, you will. So back up all your data to an outside destination first. That includes documents, Favorites, address book, photos, anything you created.

Can we try to fix this first before resorting to drastic measures? What is Windows doing?