Formating?

Looks like I am going to have to reformat my hard drive. My computer guru friend told me to go to the web site of the hard drive mfg and download a format program. Is there anywhere I can go to find out who made my hard drive. maybe like “system info” or “control panel”

Any tips on reformatting? I will back up my info.

The underlying problem is that I cannot get on the internet and everything I open with ie has the “illegal operation” note come up. i have re installed windows 98 even….. help