Pre-Install

Whether new or used, a workstation needs preparation before you install Windows (or a prepared image of Windows) on it.

Wiping: Also called low-level formatting, this completely clears a hard disk.
Partitioning: You can divide a hard disk to hold more than one operating system. This is called partitioning, and you use FDISK for this task.
Formatting: Formatting prepares a hard disk partition to hold Windows files using FORMAT.
Imaging: Imaging copies a hard disk to a network server and vice versa. Here is how Novell ZENWorks Imaging does it.