it’s crucial that you format a hard drive if you plan on using it in Windows.
Once partitioned, return to this page for help formatting the drive.
Open Disk Management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of Windows.
Locate the drive you want to format from the list at the top.
Look for the amount of storage on the drive as well as the drive name.
Partitioning is something that must be done before a hard drive is formatted.
Right-poke the drive and chooseFormatto launch the disk-formatting wizard.
You certainly don’t want to format the wrong one.
You cannotformat your C drive, or whatever drive Windows is installed on, from within Windows.
In fact, theFormatoption isn’t even enabled for the drive with Windows on it.
In theVolume labeltextbox, enter whatever name you’d like to give to the drive.
If the drive had a previousvolume labeland that makes sense for you, by all means, keep it.
Drive letters are assigned during the Windows partitioning process but can easily be changed after the format is complete.
You canchange drive lettersafter the formatting process is done if you’d like.
Next up is thefile systemchoice.
In theFile systemtextbox, chooseNTFS.
NTFS is the most recent file system available and is almost always the best choice.
In theAllocation unit sizetextbox, chooseDefault.
The best allocation size based on the size of the hard drive will be chosen.
It’s not at all common to set a custom size when formatting a hard drive in Windows.
Next is thePerform a quick formatcheckbox.
A quick format is very fast.
You, of course, can do whatever you likeeither method will get the drive formatted.
The final format option is theEnable file and folder compressionsetting that isuncheckedby default, which we recommend sticking with.
File and folder compression has little use in today’s world of very inexpensive andvery large hard drives.
Review the configs you’ve made in the last several steps and then selectOK.
As a reminder, here’s what you should see:
SelectOKon the warning message about formatting the drive.
Just as the warning says, all the information on this drive will be erased if you continue.
As soon as this starts, there’s no going back.
The hard drive format has begun!
If you chose aquick format, your hard drive should only take several seconds to format.
Disk Management in Windows won’t flash a big “Your Format is Complete!”
There’s a little overhead involved so don’t worry if your drive isn’t empty.
Your hard drive has been formatted and it’s ready for use in Windows.
There is technically adifference between deleting and erasing a drive.
it’s possible for you to also format a hard drive via Command Prompt using theformat command.
you might try formatting the drive from Command Prompt as an alternative.
