In this tutorial you will learn how to format an external drive in Windows 10. Witht he below mentioned step by step guide you can format the external drive on older versions of Windows i.e. Windows 7 and up. In this tutorial we will be using exFAT in place of FAT32 which is another filesystem that can be read by both windows and Mac. How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 10 By Robert Zak / Mar 1, 2018 / Windows The practice of formatting a hard drive on Windows has been around since ancient times when the operating system was inscribed onto wax tablets and tech-savvy ancients would know how to wipe the waxy slate clean.
- Can't Format Hdd Windows 10
- Windows 10 Disk Formatting
- How To Format Hdd In Windows 10
- How To Format External Hdd On Windows 10
Position: How Tos - Partition Management - How to Format C Drive in Windows 10/8/7?
Summary
DiskGenius - Free disk partition manager to format hard drive, wipe disk, extend C drive, access ext4, etc.
ô Free DownloadQuick Navigation::
About formatting C drive
Partition formatting
Formatting refers to the process of preparing a new partition or remove existing data on a hard drive or USB storage device. The formatting process can be applied to various storage media such as hard drive, memory sticks, virtual disk, SSD, USB flash drive, external HDD, etc. If the drive contains important data and it is the only copy of your data, you'll face data loss issue once formatting performed to the disk.
A partition should be created and formatted first before you can store data on the device. Formatting is a very important step, which creates file system to get partition ready to store data. As to formatting there are two levels of formatting we can execute:
How to create video with powerpoint slides. Quick format: Windows performs quick format by default. As the name suggest the formatting process is very quick. By way of quick formatting, you can change file system type as well as remove data off the entire partition. But the quick formatting does not erase data permanently, and you can run data recovery as long as lost data is not overwritten.
Full format: A full format runs an additional step than quick format. When you run a full format on partition or volume, data will be completely wiped from the partition being formatted and partition is scanned bad sectors. The formatting is very slow and majority of time taken by the process is used to check bad sectors.
Reasons of formatting C drive
C drive is usually system partition on most computers, and formatting C drive gives the chance that computer loses operating system and cannot boot. Why do users still want to format C drive? The reasons for formatting system partition vary from one to another and here are some common reasons:
- Retire computer: When you want to replace your computer with a new one, you might need to format computer to erase data before selling or giving away in the view of data security.
- Upgrade system disk: Windows is installed on an SSD which is running out of free space and you plan to upgrade the disk to a larger one.
- Erase data: It is advised to wipe hard drive before recycling or donating it, as the drive might contain sensitive data.
- Remove virus and malware: Operating system infects virus or malware is dangerous to personal data, as files might be damaged, lost or even leaked to third-party. Formatting C drive can wipe virus or malware safely and safeguard computer.
- System has crashed: Operating system on your computer cannot boot, and formatting C drive and reinstalling system might be ultimate solution.
- Reinstall OS: You need to format system partition before reinstalling it or changing Windows version. In this case, you can format C partition with the system setup installer during reinstalling.
You cannot format this volume
On Windows computer, you can format any partition except system partition in File Explorer or Disk Management when operating system is running. Open File Explorer by double-clicking This PC icon from desktop and right-click C drive and choose Format option. Then you will receive an error message 'Microsoft Windows. You cannot format this volume It contains the version of Windows that you are using. Formatting this volume could cause your computer to stop working. Formatting disk and drives FAQ', as follows:
Windows sets this limitation out of security consideration so that users cannot delete system by mistake. System volume stores booting files like boot.ini, bootmgr, bcd, etc. that are necessary for system booting. Besides, C drive is set as active partition and there is only one active partition on a single disk. This partition cannot be formatted or deleted within Windows.
Though it is not allowed to format C drive in Windows like you format other drives, you can format C drive outside of Windows. Sounds complicated? Actually, it is quite easy to do the task. The following part will discuss several methods to format system partition on Windows 10/8/7.
Method 1: How to format C drive from Windows Setup Disc
Since formatting removes all data on the partition, you should create backup for important files. After formatting C drive, computer won't be able to boot, and you need to considering reinstalling operating system.
Step 1 Insert Windows setup disk and restart computer. Then enter BIOS to change boot sequence to let computer boot from the disc.
Once your computer boot from the disc, you can see the installation interface where you should select language first.
Step 2 When you get to the page that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows?', you can choose system C drive and press Format option.
Once C drive gets formatted, you can either continue to reinstall Windows or exit.
Method 2: Format C drive /system partition via system repair disc
Note: If you do not have a system repair disc, you can follow steps in method 3 to complete formatting task.
Step 1 Boot to system repair disc.
After changing boot sequence in bios and restart computer, after which computer will boot from the system repair disc.
Step 2 Click Command Prompt from System Recovery Options. Then type command format c: /fs:ntfs and press Enter key.
Note: the system is usually assigned drive letter C, but sometimes it might not be identified as drive C in command prompt of some system repair disc. So please make sure you are formatting the correct drive.
Method 3: Format C drive via DiskGenius WinPE edition
DiskGenius Free is disk partition freeware and it is able to make disk partition, recover lost data, back up data, etc. for instance, with this tool you can increase C drive space, format Ext4 partition, partition hard drive, recover RAW drive, recover deleted files, backup system drive, convert GPT/MBR, convert VMDK to VHD, etc. This section shows how to format C drive via DiskGenius WinPE Edition.
Step 1 Create bootable disk for DiskGenius WinPE edition.
Can't Format Hdd Windows 10
Connect a USB drive to your computer and launch DiskGenius, and you can view the USB disk in the software. Select the USB flash drive and click Tools menu to select Create WinPE bootable USB drive of DiskGenius, as picture below:
Click OK button from the pop-up window and wait for a couple of seconds to create the bootable disk.
Step 2 Restart the computer for which you want to format C drive and enter BIOS to change boot order, so that this computer will boot from the USB device.
Windows 10 Disk Formatting
If you do not know how to enter BIOS or change boot sequence, you can seek help from the motherboard tech support. Save changes and restart computer. Then your computer boots from the bootable disk and DiskGenius will be launched automatically.
Step 3 In the DiskGenius WinPE version, select C drive (system partition) to be formatted and click Format button from toolbar.
Set file system type, cluster size, volume label, etc. and click Format button. Then DiskGenius will formats the partition quickly.
Formatted partition data recovery
Recovering lost files from formatted partition is an easy task as long as you use effective hard drive partition recovery software. DiskGenius is capable of recovering data from formatted volume or USB drives. The optimized scanning mechanism is designed to quickly and accurately search for lost files sector by sector. Apart from recovering formatted partition, it is also able to recover files from RAW and inaccessible volume as well as deleted partitions. Different file systems are supported including NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, Ext2, Ext3 and Ext4. The unregistered edition can scan formatted drive and preview lost data, so that you can make sure whether files can be recovered correctly prior to purchasing the licensed edition.
If you want to recover formatted C drive, you may need to perform the recovery process outside of Windows. On one hand, once system partition gets formatted, computer won't boot to Windows anymore. On the other hand, even if system works well, it is not secure to recover lost data from system drive when Windows is running. That's because Windows may generate writing action at any time, and damage lost data. DiskGenius supports creating WinPE based bootable disk, and you can perform C drive data recovery with DiskGenius WinPE edition.
Step 1 Launch DiskGenius and locate the partition to be recovered. Right-click on the partition you want to recover data and choose Recover Lost Files, as follows:
How To Format Hdd In Windows 10
Step 2 Select Complete Recovery and click Start button to search for lost data from selected drive.
If you remember the file system type of the partition before it got formatted, then click Advanced Options button to select file system. 'Search For Known File Types' option should be selected if lost files are partly overwritten.
Step 3 Preview files.
File preview can be done during or after scanning. Double-click a file and you can open it in preview window. The following screenshot shows the previewing of a JPG file. By way of previewing files, you can find out what you need to recover and whether they can be recovered correctly.
Step 4 Copy and save files you want to recover. Select desired files and folders and right-click on them to choose Copy To.
Conclusion
We've talked about several ways to format C drive for Windows 7/8/10 PCs, through which you can format system partition even though you do not have a system installation disc. Besides, we also introduce how to do formatted partition recovery, which helps to retrieve lost data from formatted drives. DiskGenius is a versatile tool that can help you format partition, wipe hard drive, resize partition, extend C drive, recover lost data, etc. Should you have any question or need any help regarding formatting C drive or using the program, please feel free to contact our technical support team.
DiskGenius - Full-fledged tool to manage partition, recover lost data, image disk & partition, wipe disk, etc.
ô Free DownloadDec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions How do you get facetime effects.
A hard drive, especially when it is new, needs to undergo formatting before files are dumped on it. It's an important task to make sure that the drive is functional and completely clean, without any malicious code or malware that can harm personal files and consequently put installation and operation under damage.
When you format your hard disk on Windows 10, all data is wiped out, meanwhile the file system, such as FAT32, NTFS, xFAT, is also erased. Therefore, if you want to transfer your file sytem from one to another, get down to wipe the hard drive completely.
In this article, I am going to tell how to format your Windows hard drive through two excellent methods. Scroll to explore it.
Format Hard Drive in Windows 10 with Windows Disk Management
A hard drive with partition configured already can just undergo the format to erase the data and make it a 'clean' drive.
Here are the steps to format the partition with Disk Management
- On the Start menu, type Disk Management on the search bar and click on the top result to run the program.
- On the Disk Management window, select the new hard drive and right-click on it. Select Format.
- Type in a descriptive name for the hard drive in the field Value label.
- In the File System dropdown menu, select NFTS, the recommended file type for Windows 10.
- Select Default in the dropdown menu for the Allocation unit size.
- Tick the Perform a quick format (Note: quick format does not check for damages in the drive. To make sure that there are no bad sectors, clear the option and perform a full format.)
- Clear Enable file and folder compression if necessary, and select OK.
- A warning prompt will appear, click OK to proceed.
- Wait for the format to complete.
Here are the steps to using Disk Management to create and format a new partition
- Run Disk Management and find on the list the drive labeled 'Unknown' or 'Not Initialized'. Right-click the drive and select Initialize Disk.
- Check the disk to be initialized.
- Select the right partition style: for hard drives <2TB in size, choose Master Boot Record (MBR); for drives with size >2TB, choose GUID Partition Table (GPT). Select OK.
- Right-click on the Unallocated space, and choose New Simple Volume, and then press Next.
Method 2: Format C drive /system partition via system repair disc
Note: If you do not have a system repair disc, you can follow steps in method 3 to complete formatting task.
Step 1 Boot to system repair disc.
After changing boot sequence in bios and restart computer, after which computer will boot from the system repair disc.
Step 2 Click Command Prompt from System Recovery Options. Then type command format c: /fs:ntfs and press Enter key.
Note: the system is usually assigned drive letter C, but sometimes it might not be identified as drive C in command prompt of some system repair disc. So please make sure you are formatting the correct drive.
Method 3: Format C drive via DiskGenius WinPE edition
DiskGenius Free is disk partition freeware and it is able to make disk partition, recover lost data, back up data, etc. for instance, with this tool you can increase C drive space, format Ext4 partition, partition hard drive, recover RAW drive, recover deleted files, backup system drive, convert GPT/MBR, convert VMDK to VHD, etc. This section shows how to format C drive via DiskGenius WinPE Edition.
Step 1 Create bootable disk for DiskGenius WinPE edition.
Can't Format Hdd Windows 10
Connect a USB drive to your computer and launch DiskGenius, and you can view the USB disk in the software. Select the USB flash drive and click Tools menu to select Create WinPE bootable USB drive of DiskGenius, as picture below:
Click OK button from the pop-up window and wait for a couple of seconds to create the bootable disk.
Step 2 Restart the computer for which you want to format C drive and enter BIOS to change boot order, so that this computer will boot from the USB device.
Windows 10 Disk Formatting
If you do not know how to enter BIOS or change boot sequence, you can seek help from the motherboard tech support. Save changes and restart computer. Then your computer boots from the bootable disk and DiskGenius will be launched automatically.
Step 3 In the DiskGenius WinPE version, select C drive (system partition) to be formatted and click Format button from toolbar.
Set file system type, cluster size, volume label, etc. and click Format button. Then DiskGenius will formats the partition quickly.
Formatted partition data recovery
Recovering lost files from formatted partition is an easy task as long as you use effective hard drive partition recovery software. DiskGenius is capable of recovering data from formatted volume or USB drives. The optimized scanning mechanism is designed to quickly and accurately search for lost files sector by sector. Apart from recovering formatted partition, it is also able to recover files from RAW and inaccessible volume as well as deleted partitions. Different file systems are supported including NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, Ext2, Ext3 and Ext4. The unregistered edition can scan formatted drive and preview lost data, so that you can make sure whether files can be recovered correctly prior to purchasing the licensed edition.
If you want to recover formatted C drive, you may need to perform the recovery process outside of Windows. On one hand, once system partition gets formatted, computer won't boot to Windows anymore. On the other hand, even if system works well, it is not secure to recover lost data from system drive when Windows is running. That's because Windows may generate writing action at any time, and damage lost data. DiskGenius supports creating WinPE based bootable disk, and you can perform C drive data recovery with DiskGenius WinPE edition.
Step 1 Launch DiskGenius and locate the partition to be recovered. Right-click on the partition you want to recover data and choose Recover Lost Files, as follows:
How To Format Hdd In Windows 10
Step 2 Select Complete Recovery and click Start button to search for lost data from selected drive.
If you remember the file system type of the partition before it got formatted, then click Advanced Options button to select file system. 'Search For Known File Types' option should be selected if lost files are partly overwritten.
Step 3 Preview files.
File preview can be done during or after scanning. Double-click a file and you can open it in preview window. The following screenshot shows the previewing of a JPG file. By way of previewing files, you can find out what you need to recover and whether they can be recovered correctly.
Step 4 Copy and save files you want to recover. Select desired files and folders and right-click on them to choose Copy To.
Conclusion
We've talked about several ways to format C drive for Windows 7/8/10 PCs, through which you can format system partition even though you do not have a system installation disc. Besides, we also introduce how to do formatted partition recovery, which helps to retrieve lost data from formatted drives. DiskGenius is a versatile tool that can help you format partition, wipe hard drive, resize partition, extend C drive, recover lost data, etc. Should you have any question or need any help regarding formatting C drive or using the program, please feel free to contact our technical support team.
DiskGenius - Full-fledged tool to manage partition, recover lost data, image disk & partition, wipe disk, etc.
ô Free DownloadDec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions How do you get facetime effects.
A hard drive, especially when it is new, needs to undergo formatting before files are dumped on it. It's an important task to make sure that the drive is functional and completely clean, without any malicious code or malware that can harm personal files and consequently put installation and operation under damage.
When you format your hard disk on Windows 10, all data is wiped out, meanwhile the file system, such as FAT32, NTFS, xFAT, is also erased. Therefore, if you want to transfer your file sytem from one to another, get down to wipe the hard drive completely.
In this article, I am going to tell how to format your Windows hard drive through two excellent methods. Scroll to explore it.
Format Hard Drive in Windows 10 with Windows Disk Management
A hard drive with partition configured already can just undergo the format to erase the data and make it a 'clean' drive.
Here are the steps to format the partition with Disk Management
- On the Start menu, type Disk Management on the search bar and click on the top result to run the program.
- On the Disk Management window, select the new hard drive and right-click on it. Select Format.
- Type in a descriptive name for the hard drive in the field Value label.
- In the File System dropdown menu, select NFTS, the recommended file type for Windows 10.
- Select Default in the dropdown menu for the Allocation unit size.
- Tick the Perform a quick format (Note: quick format does not check for damages in the drive. To make sure that there are no bad sectors, clear the option and perform a full format.)
- Clear Enable file and folder compression if necessary, and select OK.
- A warning prompt will appear, click OK to proceed.
- Wait for the format to complete.
Here are the steps to using Disk Management to create and format a new partition
- Run Disk Management and find on the list the drive labeled 'Unknown' or 'Not Initialized'. Right-click the drive and select Initialize Disk.
- Check the disk to be initialized.
- Select the right partition style: for hard drives <2TB in size, choose Master Boot Record (MBR); for drives with size >2TB, choose GUID Partition Table (GPT). Select OK.
- Right-click on the Unallocated space, and choose New Simple Volume, and then press Next.
- If you want to use the full size of the drive to save files, leave the Simple volume size in MB in its default value as indicated. Otherwise, specify the size you want the partition to have. Select Next.
- To select a drive letter, choose one from the dropdown menu after you tick the Assign the following drive letter.Click Next.
- Select NFTS from the File system dropdown menu.
- Select Default on the Allocation unit size
- Type a descriptive name in the space for Valuable label.
- Tick Perform a quick format. Otherwise, untick to perform a full format (which takes considerably longer depending on drive size).
- Clear the Enable file and folder compression if necessary and click Next.
- Select Finish
Are you aware of the steps to wipe your hard drive and disk partition completely through dsik management right now? You can read on to find the other method.
How to Format Hard Drive using PowerShell commands
Formatting a hard drive can also be done using PowerShell for Windows 10. Here are the steps to do so:
- Open Start menu or press Win + X and select the PowerShell (Admin) to run the program as administrator.
How To Format External Hdd On Windows 10
- On the command line, type Get-Disk and hit Enter
- To clean the hard drive, type in the command Get-Disk │ Clear-Disk -RemoveData and press Enter. (Note: Replace with the number of the hard drive to be formatted, as listed in the results for the first command)
- Type in Y to authorize and proceed with the format of the specified drive. Press Enter.
- To initialize disk partition with GUID Partition Table or GPT scheme, type this command: 'Initialize-Disk -Number' (Note: replace with the corresponding disk number for the specific drive). Press Enter.
- To make a new partition with NFTS, type on the next command line: New-Partition -Disk Number -UseMaximumSize │Format-Volume -FileSystem NFTS -NewFIleSystemLabel drive. Change to the specific drive's disk number, and change the drivelabel to the title you prefer.
- To allot a specific drive letter, type command Get-Parition -DiskNumber │Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter . Press Enter.
Note! if you see the 'Set-Partition: requested access path already in use', change to another drive letter.
- Check-in File Explorer for the newly created hard drive.
Words in The End
Keeping a drive clean and free of malware and misbehaving codes is easy, if you clean your Windows hard disk regularly.
Compared the two helpful methods above, format your hard disk through Windows 10 Disk Management will be more efficient.
And if you forget a copy of data backup and mistakenly erase your precious files, you can turn to Wondershare Recoverit for help. Recoverit is the most popular data recovery software in the world, with over five million globale users.
you can have a quick download to regain your formatted hard drive.
What's Wrong with Drive
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive