Reformatting External Hardrive

[jmoog]

I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. My sister is giving me her 250GB external harddrive. Unfortunately the harddrive has a virus on it. When she first bought the harddrive it came with a program called "Bounceback Express" which to my understanding simply "backs up" your main computer harddrive everytime you connect the external harddrive.

Well at some point my sisters computer picked up a virus which slowed it down considerably. Before she realised that her computer had a virus she connected the external harddrive which "Backed up" the main harddrive virus and all.

My question is: Is there a way that I can hook up her external harddrive to my computer and reformat it without having the "Bounceback Express" or the harddrive itself spread the virus to my computer's harddrive?

Forgive me if this is a simple question but I am not that computer savvy. Thanks.

[Monty007]

As long as you do not try to access any files or folders, right click on the drive and choose format.

[ozedee]

Can you help me, I have an external drive, that was partitioned, that I wish to re-format. I am using Windows Vista Home Premium. How do I go about it?