Windows

Guidance to Format Hard Drive

A hard drive is an essential device in a computer system, that can store the Operating System and any user data. Now, if the hard disk starts to malfunction or is not performing well, then there is a need to “format hard drive windows 10”.

Reasons to reformat hard Drive

There are various reasons to format a hard drive. Some of the most common causes are as follows.

If the Windows Operating System has got corrupted somehow, then there is a need for you to format the hard disk.
Even, if there is any type of malicious code present within the hard disk that cannot be erased then reformat it.
When you want to install the Windows OS from scratch, next for that reason you need to format the hard drive.
Also, if you are giving the hard disk to someone else, then there is a requirement to format the drive.

How to format a Hard Drive?

Here, there will be a multitude of methods that will guide you on how to reformat a hard drive.

Steps to format a new Hard Disk

If you have a new hard disk drive, then initialize and then create the partition on it first, before formatting. To find the new hard drive, go to the ‘Disk Management’ application and inside that make a partition for the disk. To do that, follow the steps below.

First, press the combination of the ‘Windows + R’ key together. This action will launch a new dialog box having the title ‘Run’.
Inside that dialog box, beside the label ‘Open’ type the text “diskmgmt.msc” on the empty space and then click on the ‘OK’ button.
As soon as you click on that button, then a new window having the name ‘Disk Management’ will come up.
Inside that window, go to the bottom and then right-click on the new hard drive that is marked as ‘Unallocated’. After that, from the popup menu that appears, locate and select the ‘Initialize Disk’ option.
If the disk is showing as ‘Offline’, then right-click on it first and choose the ‘Online’ option and repeat the previous step.
At this time, a new dialog box with the name ‘Initialize Disk’ will come up. In this dialog box, inspect the hard drive to initialize. After that, to accept the partition style that is a default, click on the ‘OK’ button.
Once the new drive has been initialized, next, navigate to the Unallocated space and right-click on it. Next, choose the ‘New Simply Value’ option from the popup menu.
Now, follow the information that comes on the screen in order to assign a drive letter and select the volume size. After that, complete any other settings and choose NTFS as the file system of the drive.
At last, put a checkmark on the ‘Perform a quick format’ option then click on both the ‘Next’ and ‘Finish’ buttons respectively.

Format a Hard Drive that is already in Use

If the hard drive that you want to format is in use already and is organized with valid partitions, then there are three ways for doing that. Those ways are as follows.

How to format a hard drive Windows 10 with a reliable software

Use a reliable disk formatting application to format either external or internal hard drive. In order to that follow the steps below.

First, open the web browser and search for a reliable disk formatting software from the internet.
Now, if you have found a correct reliable software that formats the hard drive, then visit the official website of that application and download the same.
Once the download process is complete, next, launch the installer window and follow the instructions that come up on the screen and accordingly click on the ‘Install’ button. Wait for the reliable software to install into the computer.
When the installation is over, next, double-click on the reliable application icon, to open the same.
As soon as the new window opens up, then locate a partition of the hard drive that you want to format and right-click on it. Next, from the popup menu choose the ‘Format’ option.
This opens a new dialog box, in it, set the correct ‘File system’ i.e ‘NTFS’, ‘Partition label’ and ‘Cluster size’ for the partition that needs to be formatted and click on ‘OK’ button.
If you see a new dialog box with ‘Warning’ title, then click on ‘OK’ to confirm. Now, go to the top left corner of reliable application window and click on the ‘Execute Operation’.
At this moment, another dialog box having the name ‘Pending Operations’ will appear, in it, click on the ‘Apply’ button.
Lastly, the format process of the hard disk partition will begin so wait patiently until it completes.

Format a Hard Drive Partition using Disk Management Tool

To format a partition of the hard drive you can use the ‘Disk Management Tool’, which is an inbuilt utility. Here are steps on how can you do that.

First, tap on both the ‘Windows + S’ keys simultaneously, to open the default search field.
Inside that field, type the text “control panel”, then from the output page that appears, choose the ‘Control Panel’ option.
As soon as you click on that option, then a new window will appear having the name ‘Control Panel’. Inside that window, locate and choose the ‘System and Security’ category.
This action will open a new page, in it, find the ‘Administrative Tools’ option. At this moment, a new window will come up with the title ‘AdministrativeTools’, inside it, find the ‘Computer Management’ icon and double-click on it.
Next, within the new ‘Computer Management’ window, go to the left pane and choose the ‘Disk Management’ option under the ‘Storage’ section.
When you click on that option, next, in the middle section of the ‘Computer Management’ window there will be a list of all hard disk partitions.
From that list, right-click on the correct partition or drive and then tap on the ‘Format’ option. Next, choose the right file system and allocate the cluster size of that hard drive or partition.
Finally, click the ‘OK’ button to start the formatting procedure.

Utilize Diskpart to format the Hard Drive

Get the process of how to reformat a hard drive using the Diskpart utility. For that to happen, follow the steps below.

First, click on the ‘Cortana logo’ to open the default search section of Windows.
Within that section, enter the text ‘command prompt’, then from the results page locate the ‘Command Prompt’ option.
Next, right-click on that option, and choose the ‘Run as administrator’ item. When you click on that item, next, a new window having the title ‘Command Prompt’ will come up.
Inside that window, type the command – “diskpart” and then press the ‘Enter’ key to execute it.
As soon as you enter the command present in the previous step, then another window will come up with ‘Diskpart’ utility already running.
Inside that window, enter the following commands respectively and press ‘Enter’ after each of them – “list disk”, “select disk #” (# is the disk number), “clean”, “create partition primary”, “format fs=ntfs”, “assign”.
Wait for all the commands to execute completely, then close the ‘Diskpart’ window.