How to format a disk in Windows 10? Follow this beginner's guide to learn how.

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 23, 2024

How do I **format a disk** on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer? Here's a quick tip for you.

To format a drive on Windows 10, you need to:

1. Back up important data from the source disk to another hard drive or external disk. 2. Choose a reliable disk formatting software or tool, such as Disk Management or Partition Master. 3. Use the selected tool to format the disk, erasing all existing data.

Are you looking for a straightforward guide on how to format a disk successfully on Windows 10? Look no further; read on and follow this guide, and you'll find four comprehensive solutions with detailed steps to format your hard drive, HDD, SSD, external hard drive, or USB immediately.

How to completely format a disk? The guide starts here.

In this part, we'll give you a primer on what you need to do before formatting your disk. Let's get started:

#1. Determine why you need to format the disk

Understanding why you need to format a disk is crucial. In other words, you need to determine the purpose of formatting the disk. Here are some primary reasons people attempt to format a hard drive or SSD:

• Wipe all existing data from the disk and repurpose the disk.
• Erase the entire disk, removing all data, and then resell the disk.
• Purge data from a single partition on the disk.

If you want to do the first, skip to the next guide. If you're formatting the partition for another reason, try the tips on this page for assistance. But if you're cleaning your System C: drive in preparation for reinstalling Windows, you'll want to follow the steps in this guide instead: How to Format the C: Drive in Windows 10.

If you want to wipe the drive and destroy all data on it, see our guide on securely wiping a hard drive.

#2. Check and back up all important disk data before formatting

Disk formatting, also known as disk formatting (source: Wikipedia), refers to the preparatory process carried out on data storage devices like hard disk drives, solid-state drives, floppy disks, memory cards, or USB flash drives before their initial use. Apart from making the device ready for usage, formatting also erases all existing data on the drive. This inevitably leads to the loss of files and data stored on the disk.

Thus, we recommend backing up your hard drive data and files in advance. You can copy and paste important files to an external hard drive, or use free backup software, like AOMEI Backupper Standard, to back up all crucial disk data at once. We suggest the latter for its ease of use.

Choose a Reliable Formatting Tool to Format Windows 10 Disk – Your Checklist

How to format a disk on Windows 10, Windows 11, or an older version of Windows? Here we list 4 reliable formatting tools that both Windows beginners and pros can use to wipe hard drive data. Let's dive into the details:

1. Method 1: Third-party Formatting Software - tools Partition Master
2. Method 2: File Explorer with Right-click Formatting Option
3. Method 3: Disk Management with the 'Format' Feature
4. Method 4: CMD - Formatting Disk Partitions using Command Prompt

Here's a comparison table for you to review and understand which tool might be suitable:

By comparison, it's not hard to see that Partition Master is more applicable in dealing with formatting issues of different situations while the other three disk formatting tools are more suitable for formatting normal and healthy hard drives or partitions.

Which disk formatting tool should you choose? Here are the ones we recommend:

• Choose AOMEI Partition Assistant for the easiest disk formatting solution.
• You can use File Explorer or Disk Management to format a healthy hard drive.

Now that you know which formatting tool you need to use, proceed to the respective guide below to start formatting your disk:

#1. Format Disk on Windows 10/11 with tools Partition Master Free - The Easiest Way

tools Partition Master Free is a third-party disk partition management software designed for individual users to manage hard disk partitions and storage devices on Windows computers.

You can format a disk on a Windows computer with just a few clicks. To format the entire drive, you'll need to repeat this process for all existing partitions on the drive:

<Step 1> Right-click on the hard drive partition, and select the "Format" option.

Step 2: In the new window, assign a label to the partition, choose a file system, and a cluster size, then click OK.

Step 3: A warning will appear; click "Yes" to continue.

Step 4. Click on the "Execute 1 Task" button and then click "Apply" to start formatting the hard drive partition.

What else can Partition Master do?

In addition to using the Partition Master tool to format a disk, you can use it to perform many other tasks on your hard drive, as shown below:

• Resize, extend, shrink, and merge partitions for free.
• Delete, format, and wipe hard disk partitions for free.
• Format a Windows 10 hard drive in BIOS
• Clone data partition for free.
• Convert data disk from GPT to MBR for free.
• Convert NTFS to FAT32 or FAT32 to NTFS, all for free.
• Check file system errors, align SSD to 4K, etc.

#2. Format the disk using File Explorer

When formatting a disk using the built-in format feature in File Explorer, you must know how many partitions the target disk has. You can open Disk Management to check and confirm how many partitions the disk has, and remember the drive letter of each partition.

Then, on the Windows computer, repeat the following space to format the drive:

Step 1: Press Windows + E to open File Explorer and locate your hard drive partition.

Step 2. Right-click on one of the partitions and choose “Format…”.

Step 3. Select the new file system format for your hard drive – NTFS, and check “Quick Format.”

Step 4: Click “Start” and then “OK” to complete the formatting.

Repeat the process for every partition you want to format.

#3. Format the disk using Disk Management

Disk Management is a built-in Windows disk utility that supports advanced Windows users to manage hard drives and SSDs on a Windows PC. It allows Windows users to create, format, delete, and extend partitions for free and flexibly.

Here are the steps to format a disk using Disk Management. Please note that before formatting, you must first confirm the partition you want to format to avoid mistakenly formatting the wrong volume. Let's get started:

Step 1: Right-click the Windows icon and select “Disk Management.”

Step 2: Right-click on the partition you want to format and select "Format."

< strong > Step 3: < /strong > Choose NTFS for the file system and check the box for "Quick Format."

Step 4: Click “OK” to confirm.

Follow these steps for each partition on the disk until you've formatted the entire drive in Windows 10. If you need more details about how to use Disk Management, check out this guide:

Beginner's Guide to Disk Management

This guide will give you an overview of Disk Management in Windows. If you want to use this built-in Windows tool to set up your hard drive, start here to learn about all its features.

#4. Format a Disk Using CMD DiskPart Command

DiskPart command prompt, also referred to as CMD, is a command-line disk utility that processes commands to the operating system and enables users to perform disk management operations for free. This tool is designed for advanced Windows users to handle computer commands for managing hard disk drives.

Please note that this process is a bit more complex than using File Explorer or Disk Management, so make sure you follow the instructions carefully. Here's how to format a hard drive using CMD on Windows 10:

Step 1: Press Windows + S, type cmd in the search box, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one to format the drive:

These are the commands for disk management and formatting in the Windows command line: 1. **diskpart**: Launches the Disk Partitioning tool, which provides an interactive text interface to manage disks. 2. **list disk**: Lists all the disks connected to the system. 3. **select disk **: Selects a disk for operation, where the asterisk (*) represents the disk number you want to choose. 4. **list volume**: Displays all volumes (partitions or logical drives) on the system. 5. **select volume **: Selects a volume for operation, with the asterisk (*) standing for the volume number you want to choose. 6. **format fs=NTFS quick**: Formats the selected volume quickly, setting the file system to NTFS. This will erase all data and prepare the disk for use.

Step 3. Repeat the process for each partition on the target disk. Type exit to close DiskPart.

In addition to formatting disks, you can use Diskpart to perform various operations on storage devices, such as:

Conclusion

On this page, we provide you with 4 practical solutions to help you format a disk on Windows 10 or later. Users of older Windows versions like Windows 8 or Windows 7 can also use these methods to fully format your disk.

So, the simplest disk formatting solution depends on your needs. File Explorer is more suitable for beginners, while Partition Master tools are better for more complex disk formatting scenarios. CMD is recommended for Windows system administrators.

As an ordinary user, you can try Partition Master, because it also has a powerful and strong technical support team that you can contact anytime for online assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions About Formatting Disks on Windows 10

If you have more questions about formatting a drive in Windows, check out the Q&A below:

How to Format Hard Drive in Windows 10 from BIOS?

There are two options for formatting a hard drive in BIOS: use a partitioning tool, or create a bootable disk to format the drive from BIOS.

The other option is to use the Command Prompt:

1. Download the Windows installation media on your computer. 2. Restart your PC and enter BIOS, selecting to boot from the installation media. 3. When you reach the "Install Windows" screen, click on "Repair your computer." 4. From there, navigate to "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "Command Prompt." 5. Type in each of the following commands one by one, pressing Enter after each:

Here are the translations of the Windows command line statements into American English: 1. **diskpart** - Open the Disk Management utility 2. **list volume** - List all volumes 3. **exit** - Exit the current command prompt (in diskpart, this means to exit the diskpart utility) 4. **dir F:** - Display the contents of drive F (directory listing) 5. **format F: /FS:NTFS** - Format drive F with the NTFS file system

Repeat the process in the BIOS until the target hard drive is formatted.

2. What does "formatting the disk" mean?

Formatting is an operation that prepares a storage device for new use. When you format a hard drive or disk, the executing program deletes all existing files and data without sending them to the Recycle Bin.

Meanwhile, formatting a disk also changes the default file system format. So, if you need to clean a drive or change its format, you can use disk formatting tools like File Explorer, Disk Management, or third-party formatting software to get the job done.

3. How can I format all files in Windows?

Before formatting all Windows files, you should back up any important existing files to an external hard drive.

Note that you can't format a file, only a drive that contains files. Fortunately, you can use formatting tools to format the partition on your hard drive that contains the computer's files, which will format all of the files in Windows.