How To Format A Hard Drive?

Lets see How To Format A Hard Drive? If you are looking to format your computer’s hard drive and you can not find a proper way to do it, then do not worry.  In this article, you will know all about formatting hard drives.

We will show you all the ways in which you can format a hard drive. So let’s first talk about formatting.

What is formatting?

Formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, floppy disk, solid-state drive or USB flash drive for initial use. Formatting a disk causes all the components of the drive to wipe out excluding the default system files.

If you want to erase all data on your drive or USB or any other device, then you can format your device. Formatting a disk removes all the contents of a drive and makes it like a new drive Wikipedia.

Is deleting and formatting the same thing?

People always ask the question about deleting and formatting. They want to know whether both delete and format are the same things. Let us tell you that delete and format are not entirely the same thing.

By using the delete option, you can only delete the visible parts of a drive, but in formatting, you can delete all the stuff including the non-default non-visible files. So formatting is always a better option if you want to remove everything from your drive.

Are the hard drive and hard disk the same thing?

People are always confused with hard drives and hard disks. They want to know whether these are the same or not. So let us inform you that both hard drives and hard disk drives are the same things referred by two different names. The term “hard drive” is short for “Hard disk drive” Hard disk refers to the disk inside the drive.

So, now as you know that both hard disk and hard drive are the same things, you do not have to be confused about them anymore.

How to format a hard drive?

There are three ways in which you can format a hard disk drive. We will show and elaborate on all three of them in the section below. So if you want to learn: How to format a hard disk drive? Then follow the instructions below.

The format in “My Computer”

The easiest way of formatting a hard disk drive is by using the options available in “My Computer”. To format a hard disk drive, follow these steps.

Step 1

Open “My Computer” from your screen. If you do not have it on the screen then go to the search bar and write “My Computer” and click on that option.

Step 2 

You will see all the disk drives available on your computer. Right-click on the disk drive that you want to format. 

Step 3

Select the “Format” option.

Step 4

Start” the format after choosing the right settings. You can also choose default settings. Your disk drive will be formatted in a few seconds.

Format using disk management

The second and more efficient way than the first way is by using the disk management option. In order to do that, follow the instructions given below.

Step 1 

Open “My Computer” from your screen. If you do not have it on the screen then go to the search bar and write “My Computer” and click on that option.

Step 2

You will see all the disk drives available on your computer. Right-click on the “My Computer” window. Find the “Disk management” option and click on it.

Step 3 

You will have a detailed explanation of the allocation of data in all drives. Drives will be represented by disk 0, disk 1, and furthermore according to the number of total drives. 

Step 4

Find the disk drive that you want to format. Right-click on it. Find the “format a hard drive ” option and click on it. Choose whichever settings you want to choose. You can also choose default settings. 

Step 5

Start the format. The disk will be formatted.

Formatting Hard disk drive using CMD

This is the best way of formatting a hard disk drive. If you want the best clean-up for your disk drive, then you should use this process. In order to do this process:

Step 1

Type “Cmd” in the search bar of your computer.

Step 2

Click on the “Command Prompt” option.

Step 3

Run as administrator. A black screen will pop up.

Step 4

Write “Disk part” on the black screen and press “Enter”.

Step 5

Type “list disk” to see all the disks present in the system and press “Enter”.

Step 6

Type the name of your disk, For example, disk1 and press “Enter”. Your disk will become the selected disk.

Step 7

Type “clean” and press “Enter”. Your disk drive will be cleaned successfully and you will get a  confirmation message displayed on your scream.

Step 8

Create a partition primary of the disk drive “format a hard drive”

Step 9

Type “Format” and press “Enter”. Your disk will be formatted successfully.

Step 10

Exit the Command Prompt and go to My computer to see if the selected disk was formatted.

Conclusion

We hope you were informed by this article and you got to know all the ways of formatting your disk drive. If you have any more questions, then you can ask us in the comment section. You can also watch How to Format a hard disk drive on YouTube.

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