Formatting main drive - what should I think about?

[Deleted]

I've never needed to format a drive before, so I really don't have any knowledge surrounding it. I have a full system backup image on an external drive ready, but what else should I think about? Is it just good to go or should I do something first?
EDIT: I'm especially thinking about Firmware. Will I need to get all of that again or will that be saved? How does it work? :P

[Deleted]

If you have a full backup, you shouldn't be worried. You can format a drive while you try and install Windows, I believe there's an option for it. I recently used this option, and didn't have to reinstall anything firmware-related, it was easy enough. It just wiped what it needed to wipe.

I'm pretty sure there's an allocated part of the disk that you can't touch without serious fiddling, which is why disks are normally smaller than advertised, and that'll be where the drivers and firmware are stored. Just go for it.

[Deleted]

Do I need to unplug my other drives (will they be wiped as well?)

[vesseblah]

Do I need to unplug my other drives (will they be wiped as well?)

Depends on what you use for the formatting. If you're planning on just doing clean reinstall of windows, you can select which discs to clean. If you want to be 100% safe you can go all paranoid and open the case and unplug all discs you don't want to wipe by accident.

Also copy over your files in normal way too, not just full disc image. It could be impossible to get single files out of the image without overwriting whole disc with it if you need something out of it later.