How Do I Format A Hard Drive

• How Do I Format A Hard Drive Windows 10
• How Do I Format A Hard Drive For Mac
• How Do I Format A Hard Drive In Dos

What Can You Do with Bootable USB Hard Drive Format Utility?

Almost everyone knows that formatting hard drives is not a difficult job and can be easily done with the built-in Disk Management tool in Windows. However, formatting a hard disk could be complex when your operating system cannot boot properly or your disk fails to work normally. That's when you need to create a bootable USB to format your hard drive. You can format hard drive from USB by using a bootable USB drive created by a third-party HDD format tool or a Windows installation disk. Both are effective bootable USB hard drive format utilities. Read on and carry out the method best suited to your needs.

1. On the 'Do you want to fully clean your drive' screen, select Just remove my files to do a quick deletion or select Fully clean the drive to have all files erased. On the 'Ready to reset your PC' screen, click Reset. The hard drive will be erased, and Windows 8 will be reinstalled. Windows 7 and Vista.
2. Whenever you format a hard drive, the data will be deleted, since part of the process includes purging the file system table that tracks the locations of the files written on disk.

To format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive. You need to format a hard drive if you plan on using it in Windows.

Method 1: Format Hard Drive from USB with Bootable format Tool

The simplest way to format your HDD from USB is to use the professional partition management software - EaseUS Partition Master. With the assistance of this tool, you can create a bootable format tool that enables you to run the software on the problematic computer and then format the hard drive from USB without the operating system. To get things done, you need to create a bootable USB drive with a computer that is fully functional (Part 1), then apply it to format hard drive on the computer without OS (Part 2).

Part 1: Create a Bootable USB Drive

Please refer to this page: create a bootable drive with EaseUS Partition Master.

After creating a bootable USB drive with the format tool, you can format your hard drive on the problematic computer from USB. Connect the USB to your computer and then open EaseUS Partition Master from the USB. Then follow the steps below.

Part 2: Format Hard Drive from USB

Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.

How Do I Format A Hard Drive Windows 10

Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

If you follow the guide above, you will use the bootable USB to format your hard drive successfully. Don't miss this partition tool that can perfectly fulfill your needs.

Method 2: Format HDD from USB using Command Prompt

Other than using the third-party tool, you can also format your hard drive from USB with the help of Windows Installation disk, which, as you will know, is relatively more complicated than using a bootable format tool as shown in Method 1.

Step 1: Create a Windows installation disk and boot your PC from it.

Step 2: Navigate Repair Your Computer --> Command Prompt.

Step 3: In the Command Prompt window, type diskpart and press 'enter'.

How do i use time machine. Step 4: Type list disk and press 'Enter' to list all the disk drives.

Step 5: Type select disk + disk number, here you can find the number of the target disk by referring to the listed disk information.

Step 6: Type clean to wipe all files and folders on the selected disk.

Step 7: Type create partition primary and press 'Enter'.

Step 8: After diskpart successfully created the specified partition, type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press Enter. You're telling diskpart to format the drive with a file system, let it be NTFS, exFAT, etc.

Step 9: At last, assign a drive letter to the newly created partition by typing assign.

The above guide shows you all the steps to partition and format a hard drive from USB using the diskpart command prompt. As you can see, It is a little bit tedious and time-consuming. If you want an easier way, a third-party bootable USB format tool will help.

Can You Format Hard Drive from BIOS?

Other than following the bootable USB methods to format a hard drive, you can also try to format a hard drive from BIOS. It works in the same scenarios when something went wrong with the bootable partition or when you want to format C drive in Windows.

To format hard drive from BIOS settings, you got two options.

Option 1. Boot into BIOS and Format in Windows

Step1: While booting up your computer, consecutively press F1, F2, F8 or Del key to enter BIOS settings.

Step2: Select the 'Advanced BIOS Features' by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard of your computer and then set the first boot device as the USB drive or CD, DVD.

How Do I Format A Hard Drive For Mac

Step3: After changing the BIOS settings, you can exit the screen and reboot your computer. Insert the bootable USB or CD/DVD, and your computer will boot from USB or CD, DVD.

Step4: After booting the computer, you can go ahead to format the hard drive in Windows Explorer or Windows Disk Management.

Option 2. Boot into BIOS and Format Using CMD

Step 1: While booting up your computer, consecutively press F1, F2, F8 or Del key to enter BIOS settings.

Step 2: Change the boot order to boot from USB/CD/DVD.

Step 3: Reboot your computer from the bootable disk. When your disk loaded, click 'Use this recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows' and navigate to Windows installation > Command Prompt.

Step 4: In the Command Prompt window, type format c: /fs: ntfs and hit Enter.

Which Way Do You Prefer Formatting A Hard Drive?

Based on the situations when you cannot normally start a computer, the boot partition fails to boot, or try to reinstall an operating system, it's necessary to format a hard drive in a bootable environment. Concluding from what we presented in the article, you can start freely to format HDD from USB and format HDD from BIOS settings.

No matter you choose to format hard drive from USB or BIOS settings, you must create a bootable USB or disc to boot into Windows. In comparison, EaseUS USB bootable format software is the easiest to create, and disk formatting is usually done in a few simple clicks. Whereas the Windows recovery disk is rather difficult to get, and format hard drive using CMD is higher-leveled. We don't recommend average computer users to attempt for the first time.

If you have a new drive, it's essential to format it to prepare the store for use, and in this guide, we'll show you how to complete this task on Windows 10.

On Windows 10, when connecting a new internal or external hard drive, it's important to spend the time to format it before storing files. You want to do this to make sure that the drive is empty, working as expected, and free of malware that might otherwise harm the current setup and files. It's also important to format the storage to ensure that it's using the proper settings to avoid compatibility problems.

Whenever you format a hard drive, the data will be deleted, since part of the process includes purging the file system table that tracks the locations of the files written on disk. The process will then define the area where files will be stored, and a compatible file system (such as NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT) will be applied to organize the new content. The system will continue to detect the previous data, but it'll identify that information as available space to store new data.

Windows 10 includes many methods to format a hard drive, but using Disk Management is perhaps one of the best options for most users.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to properly format a traditional hard drive or Solid-State Drive (SSD), whether it already has a partition or was never initialized.

• How to format existing partition using Disk Management
• How to create and format partition using Disk Management

How to format existing partition using Disk Management

When you're dealing with a drive that already has a partition, you can format the existing partition to delete its files and start with a clean storage.

To format a partition using Disk Management, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management console.

3. Right-click the new hard drive and select the Format option.

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4. In the 'Value label' field, confirm a new name for the storage.
5. Use the 'File system' drop-down menu, and select the NTFS option (recommended for Windows 10).
6. Use the 'Allocation unit size' drop-down menu, and select the Default option.

7. Check the Perform a quick format option.

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   Quick tip: The quick format option wipes the drive fast, but it doesn't check for problems. On the other hand, when clearing the option, a full format will be performed, which not only wipes the drive clean, but it'll also check for bad sectors. It's an option that could take many hours depending on the size, but it's a good practice to make sure the drive is in working conditions.

8. Clear the Enable file and folder compression option.
9. Click the OK button.
10. Click the OK button again.

Once you complete the steps, the tool will format the selected partition on the drive, and then you can begin storing files.

How to create and format partition using Disk Management

In the case that you have a hard drive that was never partitioned and formatted, it will not appear in File Explorer, and you'll have to initialize, create a new partition, and then format it before you can use it.

How Do I Format A Hard Drive In Dos

Once you complete the steps, the tool will format the selected partition on the drive, and then you can begin storing files.

How to create and format partition using Disk Management

In the case that you have a hard drive that was never partitioned and formatted, it will not appear in File Explorer, and you'll have to initialize, create a new partition, and then format it before you can use it.

How Do I Format A Hard Drive In Dos

Usually, you can tell a hard drive doesn't have a partition, because it will not appear in File Explorer, and on Disk Management, it'll show up as unallocated space.

To set up a new hard drive with raw space on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management console.

3. Right-click the hard drive marked as 'Unknown' and 'Not Initialized' and select the Initialize Disk option.

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4. Under the 'Select disks' section, check the disk to initialize.

5. Select the partition style:

   • Master Boot Record (MBR) for hard drives smaller than 2TB in size.
   • GUID Partition Table (GPT) for hard drives larger than 2TB in size.
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6. Click the OK button.

7. Right-click the Unallocated space part of the storage, and select the New Simply Value option.

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8. Click the Next button.

9. Under the 'Simple volume size in MB' section, leave the default size if you're planning to use the entire hard drive to store files. Otherwise, specify the amount of space in megabytes you want to allocate for the partition.

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10. Click the Next button.

11. Use the 'Assign the following drive letter' drop-down menu to select a new drive letter.

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12. Click the Next button.
13. Use the 'File system' drop-down menu, and select the NTFS option (recommended for Windows 10).
14. Use the 'Allocation unit size' drop-down menu, and select the Default option.
15. In the 'Value label' field, type a descriptive name for the storage.

16. Check the Perform a quick format option.

    © Provided by Windows Central

    Quick tip: To perform a full format that includes a disk check, clear the quick format option. If you use the full format option, remember that it can take many hours to complete depending on the size.

17. Clear the Enable file and folder compression option.
18. Click the Next button.
19. Click the Finish button.

After you complete the steps, the new hard drive will be initialized, partitioned, and properly formatted.

If the drive is exhibiting problems using the Disk Management tool, as a result of data corruption or another issue, you can use the DiskPart command-line tool to resolve the problem.

We're focusing this guide on Windows 10, but these instructions should also work on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources: