Formatting a hard drive means completely deleting disk data, setting up the file system, and preparing the selected partitions on the hard drive for use by the operating system. There are two types of formatting methods, high-level and low-level, where high-level formatting involves writing the file system to a partition in order to organize and understand the data by reading and writing data from the partition by software, while low-level formatting is done when tracks and sectors are listed on the disk, which is generally done at the factory when the hard drive leaves the factory. So, what are the ways to format a hard drive?
Disk Management Tool is a built-in utility of the Windows system, which can help us complete a series of basic operations related to disk partitioning, such as deleting volumes, creating new simple volumes, expanding volumes, compressing volumes, etc., and of course, including hard disk formatting.
Step 1Presswin+rInputdiskmgmt.mscand pressEnterto open the Disk Management tool.
Step 2Right-click on the hard drive or partition you want to format and selectFormat
Step 3In the pop-up window, set the volume label, file system, etc., and click when you are doneOKto perform a formatting operation.
The Command Prompt is also a built-in utility of the Windows system, and if you have a lot of computer expertise, then the Command Prompt may be a very good tool because it can perform all kinds of computer operations with just a few lines of commands, but it also has the disadvantage that if you make a mistake or enter one more space, the whole operation will fail, or even lead to a devastating failure.
So let's take a look at how to use the command prompt to format a hard drive!
Step 1Enter in the search boxcmdand run the command prompt as an administrator.
Step 2Enter the following commands in turn, and press them once after each line of commandsEnterkey execution.
diskpart
list disk
select disk #Refers to the hard drive number where the partition you want to format is located).
list partition
select partition #refers to the partition number you want to format).
format fs=ntfs quick
That's all for how to format your hard drive, and you can choose the method that suits you.