There are many reasons why you might want to format your hard drive and remove information from it: a clean install of Windows to get rid of a virus or malware from throwing away or giving away the drive. In this article, we'll explain everything there is to know about formatting a drive, including in Windows 10.
The steps you need to take to format the hard drive depend on several conditions: whether it is the only hard drive and whether you have a spare computer or not.
You cannot, for example, format the hard drive on which Windows 10 is currently running. In order to format the disk or reinstall Windows (or another operating system), you need to boot from the Windows installation disc, USB flash drive, or livecd.
Formatting is the process of erasing all data on a hard drive. But keep in mind that quick format doesn't actually delete your data from the hard drive. The hard drive will appear empty, but at the physical level, your data will remain in place and can be easily recovered. Quick Format is suitable if your drive is brand new or you want to reinstall Windows, but not if you want to dispose of your hard drive or give / sell it.
Attention: Before formatting the disk, make sure you have completed important data and documents from the hard disk. Although files can be recovered in some cases, it is still better not to risk it.
How to format a hard drive: partitions
Before formatting a hard drive, you need to understand what hard drive partitions are. The volume of a hard disk can be divided into smaller parts called partitions. You can format one section while leaving the others intact.
This is useful in certain situations, but if you want to format the entire hard drive or use all the disk space in one partition, you also need to delete the hard drive partition information.
How to format a hard drive from BIOS
Many readers ask how to format a hard drive from BIOS. Although you can perform many different operations through the BIOS, you cannot use it to format the hard disk, create or delete partitions.
If you need to format a drive and cannot do it from Windows, you can create a bootable CD, DVD, or USB flash drive and run a free third-party formatting tool.
One of these options is the livecd Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). This program will completely erase all data from the hard drive, allowing you to perform a clean OS installation or give away the disk. This process is irreversible, keep this in mind.
DBAN is available only as a CD / DVD-R image, but if you do not have a CD drive or blank "blank", you can easily create a bootable flash drive using the downloaded iso file.
Download and run the Universal USB Installer, insert the flash drive into your computer, and follow the program instructions. You will be prompted to select the Linux distribution you want to install (in this case the latest version of DBAN), followed by the location of the iso file on your computer and the drive letter of the USB stick. Then click the "Create" button.
In the BIOS, you need to change the boot order of devices and set your USB drive as the primary boot disk. After you have saved your settings, restart your computer.
Your computer should automatically load DBAN, with which you can completely erase all data on your hard drive (options are possible). After DBAN is loaded into the computer's RAM, it is advisable to remove the bootable USB flash drive from the computer so as not to accidentally "overwrite" it.
How to format a RAID drive
If you have two or more drives configured as a RAID array, you can use different methods to format those drives. Before using any of them, make sure you have completed which you want to keep.
- Use the software utility that comes with your RAID controller or motherboard.
- Go into the BIOS of the RAID controller and look for the option to format the disk (s) or configure the RAID as separate disks (this will delete data from all disks).
- Unplug the drive you want to format and plug it into a different SATA port on the motherboard that is not part of the RAID controller. Then format the disk using the Windows Disk Management utility
How to quickly format a hard drive
Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 have a built-in tool for managing hard drives (see below), but it would be faster to do this:
- Go to Windows Explorer
- Click on the desired disk with the right mouse button (you cannot format the partition on which the OS is installed).
- Select "Format". By default, the checkbox is on the "fast" formatting method. You can leave the rest of the settings unchanged and click "Start". Within a minute, your disk will be formatted.
We use the utility "Disk Management"
Enter diskmgmt.msc in the search bar of Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10 and select the result shown. The Disk Management snap-in opens. This tool is not as flexible as, for example, the well-known Acronis, but it is quite enough for formatting or resizing a partition.
When you plug a new hard drive into your computer, you might be surprised that it doesn't appear in Windows Explorer. The reason is that it must be initialized and formatted first - you can do this in the disk management tool.
When you start Disk Management, all disks on your computer will be analyzed. You will be able to initialize the required drives if required.
If your disk space is more than 2 Tb, you need to select the GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition table. This section table will also allow you to create more than 4 sections.
Right-click on the disk that says "Not initialized" and select "Initialize".
Once this is done right click on it and select "Create Simple Volume". Specify the partition of the new disk volume and the letter you want to assign to it.
Likewise, you can quickly format a disk.
Resizing a partition
You can use Disk Management to expand or shrink a partition. Just right click on the desired volume and select the appropriate option. If you want to shrink the partition, the program will tell you how much free space you can get by shrinking the partition. You can adjust the new disk size using the sliders.
If there is no free space on the disk, then the "Expand volume" option will be inactive.
So today we learned how to format a hard drive, how to erase data completely from a hard drive, how to resize a hard drive partition, and how to format a RAID drive. I hope this article was helpful to you.
On electronic media, be it flash drives, floppy disks or hard drives, data is stored in cells, like on a chessboard. They are created programmatically, that is, they cannot be physically viewed on disk. The process of marking the media for such cells is called formatting... This operation erases old data.
Formatting can requiredif the media is new. The hard drive you just bought is not marked up, so it is not suitable for storing data. Also formatting will help when the file system damaged.
Typically formatting the hard drive before installation new operating system on it. This is done for the OS to function correctly or to get rid of system junk. Also this way you can clean the media. from malicious programs that the antivirus has missed.
Why use bios for formatting
In general, the expression "format via BIOS" is incorrect, because the BIOS itself does not have the necessary options. Formatting is done using third-party applications, and bios is needed to change boot priorities... You cannot perform such operations with a scratch disk. To clear it, you need to boot from a different media.
How to install boot from disk or flash drive
Important!Depending on the model of the motherboard and, the procedure may differ.
After these steps, the system will always boot from the selected media, but if you need to change the priority only once, you can proceed as follows:
How to format a hard drive using a distribution
To format the hard drive in this way, you need a flash drive or cd \\ dvd on which the Windows 7 installer or any other is written.
Formatting hdd using third-party programs
There are other ways of formatting.
Non-system HDD can be formatted using standard Windows operations. For this you need:
This method will allow you to change the file system.
You can also use the program Acronis Disc Director... Even the system disk can be cleaned in this way. To format the hdd using this application, you should:
Important! If the system partition has been cleared, Windows will not boot.
For certain reasons, PC users sometimes really need to format the hard drive. There are plenty of options on how to do this. By itself, this process is a complete cleaning of the "hard" from the information that is on it. Most often used when changing the operating system. Before formatting a hard drive, you need to save all the necessary information on any other medium. For example, on a disk, flash drive or external drive.
Through the command line
The easiest way to format your hard drive is to invoke the console. The command line starts like this:
- click "Start";
- from the list "All programs" select "Standard";
- in the podcast that opens, choose Command Prompt.
But then you need to register which disk will be erased entirely. Let it be "S". You must enter "format c:" in the console. Before that, the system will warn you that all data will be erased cleanly, and will ask you to confirm the decision. You can invoke the command line even if your computer is damaged by viruses. Just during system boot, you need to press F8 and choose to start in safe mode with console support. Depending on how heavily the disk is loaded with information, formatting takes from 10 minutes to an hour. At this time, you just need to wait without pressing anything. Or go about your business.
Through "My Computer"
The most accessible way for all users to completely format a hard drive is to select the drive itself from all those in the folder. You need to go to "My Computer" on Windows XP or "Computer" on other versions. Among all the discs that are available, choose the one that you will erase. Call the context menu by right-clicking. Select the item: "format the disk". Read the question from the system carefully. It is worth noting that before formatting the hard drive, you need to log into the system in administrator mode. Otherwise, the option may not be available (on some versions of operating systems). The operation takes a long time if the disk is full of information. It is noteworthy that in this way you can remove any hard, regardless of whether there is an operating system there or not. That is, you need to be extremely careful when using a PC, especially if children have access to it.
How to format a hard drive?
Speaking about such a procedure as deleting and cleaning all files on the device, one cannot but mention the method with special optical disks. Specifically, those that already have a new operating system. Everything is as easy as shelling pears: insert the disc into the drive and wait until it spins up. Then you just need to follow the steps. One of them will be how to format the hard drive. If the hard is virtually divided into several parts, the system will offer to remove both or only one. The one where the operating system is located (by default, this is drive C). That is, the information on other disks will remain intact. Attention, if there are viruses and malicious programs in the system, then both must be removed in order to prevent viruses from spreading in the computer. If you do not have enough knowledge to carry out all the steps correctly, contact the specialists who will format everything quickly and without damage to your PC.
In recent years, the computer literacy of the population has increased slightly. In any case, many people know about programs, and some can already figure out their own home router, since nothing sensible can be achieved from the technical support of most domestic providers.
But still, the overwhelming majority of users do not know anything about the computer, which would be more difficult than spending time on social networks. In particular, in the event of some serious software malfunctions that can be eliminated only by a complete reinstallation of the OS, they have no idea how to format a disk with Windows 7.
Of course, such a need does not arise very often, but if a beginner encounters it, then there can be a lot of problems. That is why it will probably be useful for you to read this article in order to form your own idea of \u200b\u200bthe process.
The essence of formatting. What is it for?
Formatting is the process by which the surface of the hard disk is marked. The most basic is low-level formatting, which is done only at the factory. We are interested in a high-level process that changes logical partitions on disks.
Before formatting a disk with Windows 7, the user must determine the file system type, cluster size and other technical characteristics of the newly created partition. This should not be taken lightly, since the survivability of the carrier and the amount of free space on it depend on these operations.
What is the best cluster size?
In particular, if you set the maximum possible and store only text documents on such a disk, then you will waste free space. Let's assume that you have defined 512KB. That is, by writing only one 20B text document file to disk, you occupy a whole cluster, 99% of which will be wasted.
How do I format the system partition?
If you know a little about computers, then remember very well the procedure for standard preparation of a new section. You can right-click on its icon and select "Format" from the context menu. But there is one problem.
The fact is that you cannot format the system partition (on which the system is installed). If you try, a warning will appear stating that this operation cannot be performed. How to be?
Using a boot disk
Since the goal is to find out how to format a disk with Windows 7, you will have to get out the boot disk from which you installed the system. If there is none, you need to do it yourself. To do this, you need to write the image downloaded from the network (or created by yourself) to
You need to insert it into the drive, restart the computer, and set the boot from the CD / DVD drive in the BIOS. How to do this, you will have to find out on your own, since different manufacturers provide different versions of BIOS with radically different interfaces.
As a rule, all the information you need should be posted on the motherboard manufacturer's website. So, having learned how to format a disk through the BIOS, you will have to find this information.
So, immediately after booting from the optical drive, you will be taken to the OS installation menu. Since we are talking about Windows 7, even the "greenest" beginners can relax: everything is so clear there (almost at the level of intuition) that even a child can handle it.
Immediately after the first dialog box appears, select the "Install" item in it. Next, the required OS version is selected (if you enter the key, the installation program will select the required one). After that, the work with disks appears. Having finally understood how to format the system drive, find out its letter in advance, otherwise you can easily lose your entire collection of music or movies.
This is what we need. Select the required section by clicking on it with the left mouse button. At the very bottom of the window there should be a link "Disk settings". By selecting it, you will see the appearance of other options. You need the "Format" section. Select the required file system and click "OK". Then you can either continue with the installation of Windows, or install some other operating system.
Since the system itself offers to format the disk during installation, in the absence of any experience, it is better to leave the default settings.
Live CD
If you have ever dealt with system administration, then you probably know about Live CDs, which in the case of Windows OS are often called BartPE. From such a medium, you can not only boot from under the "BIOS", but also get a fully functional system as a result. Since it will not work to format the system disk from under the working OS (this is not Linux, after all), this option may be the only correct one.
Since the system from the "live CD" is loaded into RAM, you can right-click on any disk (including the system one), then select the "Format" item in the context menu. All subsequent actions are no different from those that we have already described in this article.
The same can be done using the installation disc with any Linux distribution. As a rule, they all have a Live CD-mode, so you don't have to perform any dances with the console. The same Ubuntu, the interface of which is as simple and intuitive as possible, is ideal.
Another variant
But it often happens that two systems are installed on one disk at once. In particular, this happens due to inexperience, when a person mistakenly puts several copies of an identical OS on one physical disk at once.
This cannot be done, because such a combination may well cause problems when loading and running programs. In addition, the human factor cannot be excluded when users delete system files from the second system from under the first system. Of course, there is no need to talk about stable work in the latter case.
So how to format the Windows 7 drive then? Everything is much simpler here.
Cleaning through the context menu
To do this, go to "My Computer", and then select the disk on which you do not need a copy of "Windows" installed. There is no need to worry about the "distribution" of the Windows from which you are currently working. We have already indicated that in this case the system itself will not allow you to do this.
Next, click on the section you need with the right mouse button, and then select "Format" in the menu that appears. A dialog box will also appear in which you must specify the type of file system. It all depends on your preferences and requirements.
Choosing a file system
The main (and most reliable) is NTFS, but FAT32 is acceptable if necessary. We have already written about determining the size of a standard cluster above. As for the type of formatting, here again everything depends only on you.
But! You need to take a close look at how to format an NTFS hard drive. It should be noted that the reliability of this file system is based on the fact that it creates a large enough recovery partition.
In the event that you are preparing a disk, the volume of which is off scale for several hundred GB, this can be waived. But it is not worth marking up disks with a volume of 40 GB and below. However, where can you find such "dinosaurs" now? But if you have a need to prepare the hard drive of some old computer, then our recommendations will certainly be useful to you.
If you check the box "Quick (Clear the table of contents"), then the process will not take much time, but it will still be possible that deleted files from the disk can be recovered.
If you are going to sell this hard drive, we recommend that you uncheck this box. After clicking on the "Start" button, all data will be erased from the media, including the operating system installed there. This may take some time, which will directly depend on both the power of your computer and the size of the disk.
We carry out cleaning through "Disk Management"
This method is somewhat more reliable. Having understood Windows 7 by this method, you first need to click on the "Start" button, and in the menu that appears, select the "Control Panel" item. In the Panel that opens, look for the "Administration" option.
In the dialog box that opens, select the "Computer Management" shortcut. A window for managing the utility of the same name will open, in which we are interested in the item "Storage devices". In it, you must double-click on the "Disk Management" line.
After all these manipulations, a window will open with a list of storage devices installed in the system. Select the required disk in it, right-click on it. The same context menu will open, in which you should select the "Format" item. You have already been familiar with the further steps above.
Using a command line emulator
So we got to the most "advanced" method, which is used only by the most experienced users. So formatting a disk with Windows 7 is very convenient and quick, but you need to remember or write down all the commands that we give you in the text below.
It is best to just copy them and then paste them into the command line using the right mouse button ("Paste" item).
Once again, pay attention: carefully monitor the drive letter that you need to format. An error can lead to the fact that you will lose data that are of considerable value (at least for you).
First you need to run the emulator with administrator rights. This is done simply. First, click on the "Start" button, look for the "Search" field there. You drive the CMD command into it, and then press the Enter key. A window with search results will open on the right side, in which you need to right-click on the file of the same name, and select the "Run as Administrator" option in the context menu.
Having decided how to format a disk partition with system or unnecessary data, first of all write the format Y: command in the command line, where instead of Y there should be the letter of the partition you need. We repeat once again: make no mistake! There have been cases when absent-minded users were deprived of all archives with family videos.
After that, you need to press the Enter key, after which the data will be fully formatted. Important! When using the command line emulation mode, there are no warnings about the possible loss of important data in case of an error, so be extremely careful when entering commands!
A little about flash drives
If the external drive asks to format it before use, you can also use the command line. All steps are exactly the same, but the main command will have a slightly different look: format Y: / Q. As in the previous case, the letter Y is the designation of your disk, which you need to change to the value relevant for your case, and the Q key stands for Quick, which indicates a quick format with a simple cleaning of the table of contents.
What is it for? The fact is that you should not completely format flash drives once again, since this once again reduces the number of rewriting cycles.
Hello.
Almost every user sooner or later is faced with reinstalling Windows (viruses, system errors, buying a new disk, switching to new hardware, etc.). Before installing Windows - the hard drive must be formatted (modern Windows 7, 8, 10 OS offer to do this right during the installation process, but sometimes this method does not work ...).
In this article, I will show you how to format a hard drive in the classic way through BIOS (when installing Windows), and alternatively, using an emergency flash drive.
1) How to create an installation (bootable) USB flash drive with Windows 7, 8, 10
In most cases, the HDD hard drive (and SSD too) is easily and quickly formatted during the Windows installation stage (you just need to go to the advanced options during installation, it will be shown below in the article) With this I propose to start this article.
In general, you can create both a bootable USB flash drive and a bootable DVD (for example). But since recently DVD drives are rapidly losing popularity (some PCs do not have them at all, and in laptops some put another disk instead of them), then I will focus on a USB flash drive ...
What you need to create a bootable USB drive:
- bootable ISO image of the desired Windows OS ( where can I get it, explain, probably not necessary? 🙂);
- the bootable USB flash drive itself, at least 4-8 GB (depends on the OS you want to write to it);
- program Rufus (off. site) with which you can easily and quickly write an image to a USB flash drive.
The process of creating a bootable USB drive:
- start the Rufus utility and insert the flash drive into the USB port;
- then in Rufus select the connected USB flash drive;
- specify the partition scheme (in most cases it is recommended to set MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI. What is the difference between MBR and GPT, you can find out here:);
- then select the file system (NTFS is recommended);
- the next important point is choosing an ISO image from the OS (specify the image you want to burn);
- in fact, the last step is to start recording, the "Start" button (see the screenshot below, all the settings are indicated there).
Parameters for creating a bootable USB flash drive in Rufus.
After 5-10 minutes (if everything is done correctly, the flash drive is working and no errors occurred) the bootable USB flash drive will be ready. You can move on ...
2) How to configure BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive
In order for the computer to "see" the USB flash drive inserted into the USB port and be able to boot from it, it is necessary to correctly configure the BIOS (BIOS or UEFI). Despite the fact that everything in Bios is in English, it is not so difficult to set it up. Let's go in order.
1. To set the appropriate settings in BIOS - it is impossible to enter it first. Depending on the manufacturer of your device, the login buttons may vary. Most often, after turning on the computer (laptop), you need to press the button several times DEL (or F2). In some cases, the button is written directly on the monitor at the first boot screen. Below is a link to an article that will help you enter Bios.
How to enter BIOS (buttons and instructions for different device manufacturers) -
2. Depending on the BIOS version, the settings can be very different (and there is no universal recipe, unfortunately, how to configure BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive).
But generally speaking, the settings are very similar for different manufacturers. Need to:
- find the Boot section (in some cases Advanced);
- first turn off Secure Boot (if you created a USB flash drive as described in the previous step);
- then configure the boot priority (for example, in Dell laptops this is all done in the Boot section): put USB Strorage Device in the first place (i.e. bootable USB device, see the screenshot below);
- then press the F10 button to save the settings and restart the laptop.
Configuring BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive (using a Dell laptop as an example).
For those who have a slightly different Bios from the one shown above, I suggest the following article:
- bIOS setup for booting from flash drives:
3) How to format the hard drive with Windows Installer
If you correctly recorded the bootable USB flash drive and configured BIOS, then after restarting the computer, the Windows welcome window will appear (which always pops up before starting the installation, as in the screenshot below). When you see such a window, just click next.
Starting Windows 7 Installation
Then, when you reach the installation type selection window (screenshot below), then select the option complete installation (i.e. with setting additional parameters).
Further, in fact, you can format the disk. The screenshot below shows an unformatted disk with no partitions on it yet. With it, everything is simple: you need to click the "Create" button, and then continue with the installation.
If you want to format the disk: just select the desired partition, then click the "Format" button ( Attention! The operation will destroy all data on the hard drive).
Note. If you have a large hard drive, for example 500 GB or more, it is recommended to create 2 (or more) partitions on it. One partition for Windows and all programs that you install (50-150 GB recommended), the rest of the disk space for another partition (s) - for files and documents. Thus, it is much easier to restore the system's performance in case of, for example, Windows refusal to boot - you can simply reinstall the OS on the system disk (and files and documents will remain intact, since they will be on other partitions).
In general, if your disk is being formatted through the Windows installer, then the task of the article is completed, and below will be a method of what to do if you cannot format the disk ...
4) Formatting the disk via
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition
Program for working with drives, with IDE, SATA and SCSI, USB interfaces. It is a free analogue of the popular Partition Magic and Acronis Disk Director programs. The program allows you to create, delete, merge (without losing data) and format hard disk partitions. In addition, the program can create a bootable emergency flash drive (or CD / DVD disk), booting from which, you can also create partitions and format the disk (i.e. it will be very helpful in cases where the main OS is not loaded). All major Windows operating systems are supported: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10.
Creating a bootable USB drive in AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition
The whole process is very simple and straightforward (especially since the program supports the Russian language in full).
1. First, insert the USB stick into the USB port and run the program.
After 3-5 minutes, the wizard will finish the work and you can insert the USB flash drive into the PC on which you plan to format the disk and reboot (turn on) it.
Note. The principle of working with the program when you are using the emergency flash drive, which we took a step above, is the same. Those. all operations are done in the same way as if you had installed the program in your Windows OS and decided to format the disk. Therefore, the formatting process itself, I think, makes no sense to describe (right mouse button on the desired disk and select the desired one in the drop-down menu ...)? (screenshot below) 🙂
Formatting a hard disk partition
This concludes today. Good Luck!
