The best disk format tool in 2021 comes out. They are third-party EaseUS format tool, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, HDD Low Level Format Tool and the built-in HDD formatter like File Explorer, Disk Management and CMD in Windows 10/8/7. Choose one of the six to format a disk, HDD, SSD, USB flash, pen drive, and SD card with ease.
Best Hard Drive Format Tool in 2021
- 1. EaseUS Partition Master Format Tool
- 2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
- 3. HDD Low Level Format Tool
- 4. Windows File Explorer
- 5. Windows Disk Management
- 6. Windows Command Prompt (CMD)
However, with all of the different drive manufacturers, interfaces and other compatibility and formatting issues that hard drives can have, sometimes the best choice is to use specialty formatting apps and utilities. The Windows Disk Management function, pictured above, allows Windows users to simply format and partition external drives.
Open the Windows search box, type 'diskmgmt.msc,' and hit enter. The Windows Search Box is the magnifying button icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen. Right-click on your external hard drive and select Shrink Volume. If this option is not available to you, reformat the drive to NTFS and try again. If there is no unallocated disk space, you can create some by shrinking an existing partition, deleting a partition, or by using a third-party partitioning program. To create and format a new partition (volume) To format an existing partition (volume). If you've been a Windows user for even a small amount of time, you'd know how to format USB Drive on Windows. It's fairly straightforward and all you have to do is right-click on it and select Format. You get to select a new file system for the drive before you click the Start button and that's it.
Each hard disk format tool in the list can be used to format any drive in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Windows Server operating system. Some of them are free to use, while some are for commercial use. Next, you'll learn the details of the product description, advantages and disadvantages.
*Back up Data Before Formatting a Disk*
In general terms, we format a disk using the quick format, which erases data completely but the data is recoverable by some third-party data recovery software. The other disk formatting manner is called low-level format, which erases the whole disk surface and makes data restoration impossible!
No matter which way you'll need to format a disk, to protect important data from completely erasing, always create a backup in advance.
- Method 1. Open the target hard drive and manually copy useful files and documents to another device.
- Method 2. Use Windows backup software to automatically back up the whole disk/partition or target files and folders to another device at one time.
#1. EaseUS Partition Master - Best Hard Disk Formatting software, free download for PC
- Supported file system: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3, and EXT4
- User interface: simple, graphical, clean and user-friendly to beginners
EaseUS Partition Master Free is an all-around disk & partition management tool that includes but not limited to a disk formatting feature. It's placed on the top position of the best hard drive format tool due to the facts of the following:
Pros:
Formatting A Mac Drive For Windows
- Free to download and format a disk
- Support all Windows operating systems and servers
- Format a drive that is RAW, not showing up or not recognized by Windows
- Format a disk even when the Windows was unable to complete the format
- Allow you to create a bootable hard drive format tool
- Format 64/128/256GB USB hard drive to the FAT32 file system
- Convert FAT32 to NTFS without formatting or losing data
- Build with other powerful features: resize, move, create, merge, delete, wipe, or recover lost partition
Cons:
- Some advanced features are not free, such as migrate OS to SSD
Guide - How to format a disk with EaseUS format tool:
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.
#2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - Windows XP Disk Formatter
- Supported file system: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
- User interface: kind of outdated but relatively easy-to-use
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a Windows-based disk format utility to format any drive. It should work on all the older and newer Windows OS versions, but viewing from the formatting speed and performance, it stands out on usually the Windows XP operating system. With HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, you can format any USB Flash drive, hard drive, or memory card in FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems. Moreover, create DOS startup disks that can help boot a PC after it dies.
Pros:
- It is best used on USB drives and it strips and re-formats your drives
- The GUI is very familiar because it looks just like the Windows XP formatting tool
Cons:
- It may cause crashes on modern computers with newer operating systems
- It needs you to run it under Administrator
Guide - How to format a hard drive with HP Disk Storage Format Tool
Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your Windows XP computer, click Devices and select the USB drive you want to format.
Step 2. From the File System menu, select a file system and enter a name for the reformatted disk in the Volume Label input box.
Step 3. Click the Quick Format option to enable a quick format. If you leave this option unchecked, a slower, low-level format will be performed.
Step 4. Click Start to begin the USB formatting.
#3. HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool - Best Low-level Hard Disk Drive Formatting Software
- Supported operating system: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2
- User interface: kind of outdated and complex to use
HDD Low Level Format Tool is a utility exclusively designed for low-level hard disk drive formatting. After running this low level format tool, the whole disk surface will be erased. As a result, data restoration is impossible after using this utility! This HDD Low Level Format utility is free for personal/home use, but the speed is restricted at 80GB per hour, which is 50 MB/s.
Pros:
The only disk format tool for a low level format
Cons:
Almost paid software. Personal license without speed limit is $3.30 while the commercial license is $27.00 per seat (PC)
Guide - How to format a disk with HDD Low Level Format Tool:
Step 1. Download and run HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool on your computer.
Step 2. Plug your HDD or USB drive into the computer and launch the low-level format tool.
Step 3. Select the desired drive and click Continue. Confirm the option by clicking Yes.
Step 4. Select Low-Level Format in the tab to start the low-level formatting process.
#4. Windows File Explorer - The Simplest Drive Formatting Option in Windows 10/8/7
- Supported operating system: NTFS, exFAT and FAT32
- User interface: Simple design and operation throughout the formatting procedure
It's the first native Windows disk formatting choice we'll introduce. Press Windows + E keys so we can easily evoke the File Explorer. The local disk drives and the externally connected drives will appear there. As long as the drive you tend to format is visible, you can use the Format option to start a quick format with a few simple steps.
Pros:
- Free
- Works on all Windows computers
- Applies to Windows beginners
- 3-step formatting
Cons:
- Doesn't work when the hard drive is not showing up
- FAT32 is not available for a storage drive over 32GB
Guide - How to Format a Hard Drive in File Explorer
Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on the target hard drive which you need to format, select 'Format'.
Step 2. Rename the hard drive, reset its file system to NTFS or other formats.
Step 3. Click 'Start' to begin the formatting.
#5. Windows Disk Management - Free Built-in Disk Formatter for Advanced Use
- Supported operating system: NTFS, exFAT and FAT32
- User interface: Designed with a couple of useful disk management features in the clean organization
Cons:
- Some advanced features are not free, such as migrate OS to SSD
Guide - How to format a disk with EaseUS format tool:
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.
#2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - Windows XP Disk Formatter
- Supported file system: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
- User interface: kind of outdated but relatively easy-to-use
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a Windows-based disk format utility to format any drive. It should work on all the older and newer Windows OS versions, but viewing from the formatting speed and performance, it stands out on usually the Windows XP operating system. With HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, you can format any USB Flash drive, hard drive, or memory card in FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems. Moreover, create DOS startup disks that can help boot a PC after it dies.
Pros:
- It is best used on USB drives and it strips and re-formats your drives
- The GUI is very familiar because it looks just like the Windows XP formatting tool
Cons:
- It may cause crashes on modern computers with newer operating systems
- It needs you to run it under Administrator
Guide - How to format a hard drive with HP Disk Storage Format Tool
Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your Windows XP computer, click Devices and select the USB drive you want to format.
Step 2. From the File System menu, select a file system and enter a name for the reformatted disk in the Volume Label input box.
Step 3. Click the Quick Format option to enable a quick format. If you leave this option unchecked, a slower, low-level format will be performed.
Step 4. Click Start to begin the USB formatting.
#3. HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool - Best Low-level Hard Disk Drive Formatting Software
- Supported operating system: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2
- User interface: kind of outdated and complex to use
HDD Low Level Format Tool is a utility exclusively designed for low-level hard disk drive formatting. After running this low level format tool, the whole disk surface will be erased. As a result, data restoration is impossible after using this utility! This HDD Low Level Format utility is free for personal/home use, but the speed is restricted at 80GB per hour, which is 50 MB/s.
Pros:
The only disk format tool for a low level format
Cons:
Almost paid software. Personal license without speed limit is $3.30 while the commercial license is $27.00 per seat (PC)
Guide - How to format a disk with HDD Low Level Format Tool:
Step 1. Download and run HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool on your computer.
Step 2. Plug your HDD or USB drive into the computer and launch the low-level format tool.
Step 3. Select the desired drive and click Continue. Confirm the option by clicking Yes.
Step 4. Select Low-Level Format in the tab to start the low-level formatting process.
#4. Windows File Explorer - The Simplest Drive Formatting Option in Windows 10/8/7
- Supported operating system: NTFS, exFAT and FAT32
- User interface: Simple design and operation throughout the formatting procedure
It's the first native Windows disk formatting choice we'll introduce. Press Windows + E keys so we can easily evoke the File Explorer. The local disk drives and the externally connected drives will appear there. As long as the drive you tend to format is visible, you can use the Format option to start a quick format with a few simple steps.
Pros:
- Free
- Works on all Windows computers
- Applies to Windows beginners
- 3-step formatting
Cons:
- Doesn't work when the hard drive is not showing up
- FAT32 is not available for a storage drive over 32GB
Guide - How to Format a Hard Drive in File Explorer
Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on the target hard drive which you need to format, select 'Format'.
Step 2. Rename the hard drive, reset its file system to NTFS or other formats.
Step 3. Click 'Start' to begin the formatting.
#5. Windows Disk Management - Free Built-in Disk Formatter for Advanced Use
- Supported operating system: NTFS, exFAT and FAT32
- User interface: Designed with a couple of useful disk management features in the clean organization
Windows Disk Management is a free Windows built-in tool, which means you can easily open it on your computer without downloading. It comes to use when you're trying to format a drive that is not showing up in the File Explorer. It's good at formatting some storage devices that have something wrong, like file system corruption, not formatted error, not accessible, etc.
Pros:
- Free
- Available to all Windows operating system
- Be able to format a RAW drive
Cons
- Doesn't support to format a Linux drive
- FAT32 is not available for a storage drive over 32GB
Guide - How to Format a Hard Drive Partition in Disk Management
Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.
Step 2. Go to 'Disk Management'.
Step 3. Right-click the target hard drive partition and choose 'Format'.
Step 4. Set the volume label, file system and click 'OK' to start formatting the drive.
#6. Windows Command Prompt - The Most Capable Built-in Formatting Tool for Professionals
- Supported file system: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3, and EXT4
- User interface: Very unfamiliar to beginners
Windows Command Prompt, for average computer users, is a hidden but powerful computer troubleshooting program that is able to solve most of the computer and hard drive problems. You can apply a variety of command lines to examine, check or repair computer issues. For example, to format a disk drive, you'll use the diskpart command lines.
Pros:
- Free
- Format any drive to every file system that is available to use on Windows, macOS or Linux
Cons:
- Applies to experienced users only
- Any false operation will cause serious computer problems
Guide - How to Format a Hard Drive with DiskPart command
Step 1. Open Command Prompt by right-clicking on Windows icon, select 'Search' and type: command prompt.
Right-click on Command Prompt and select 'Run as administrator'.
Step 2. Type diskpart in Command Prompt and hit Enter.
Step 3. Hit Enter each time when you type below command lines in DiskPart to quick format hard drive:
- list disk
- select disk 2(Replace 2 with your disk number)
- list volume
- select volume 10(Replace 10 with the volume number of the partition that you want to format)
- format fs=ntfs quick (If you need to format a hard drive partition to FAT32 or other file systems, replace ntfs with fat32, exfat, etc.)
- Warning
- If you accidentally input format without fs=ntfs quick or fs=fat32 quick in DiskPart command prompt, it will execute a full format on your selected hard drive partition.
- This command will erase all saved data sector by sector. In other words, you'll permanently lose all erased data on the drive with no recovery chance.
Step 4. Type exit and hit Enter to close the program when DiskPart reports it has successfully formatted the volume.
Conclusion: What To Do with Hard Drive After Formatting
Some of you may have the same question about what to do after formatting the hard drive. Here is a list that you can follow to make full use of your formatted hard drive:
# 1. Re-partition hard drive to make full use of space on your hard drive.
Xbox one advanced settings. To do so, you may need a reliable partition management tool like EaseUS Partition Master Free to partition hard drive on your computer for free. You may also use this tool to merge partitions or extend hard drive partition based on your needs.
# 2. Save files to the formatted hard drive.
# 3. Recover lost files due to formatting.
If you didn't back up data before formatting and lost valuable files, you may apply professional data recovery software to recover data after formatting.
Nov 23, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
A computer's hard drive experiences malfunctions over time, which are caused by multiple factors like viruses, or sketchy or incompatible software, or the computer's old age. To help maintain and resolve performance issues, reformatting the hard drive every year is advisable. In this article, we will learn how to format the hard disk in Windows 7. If in case you forget to create a backup of your files, then we will show you how to recover those files.
- Part 1. Overview of Formatting Disk in Windows 7:
- Part 2. Types of Hard Drive Formatting For You to Choose:
- Part 3. How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 7 by Disk Management?
- Part 4. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive After Format?
Part 1. Overview of Formatting Disk in Windows 7:
Windows 7, introduced many user-friendly features with its release. One of them was revamping the method to format the hard drive on the go by adding the freshly minted Disk Management utility. It allowed the user to create partitions and format the hard drive with ease. Here in this section, we will discuss everything related to disk formatting on Windows 7.
1. What Is Hard Drive Formatting?
Disk formatting permits the user to remove the used storage from the storage device altogether and also helps in managing one or more new file systems. It can also be used to check for faulty tracks or defective sectors within a hard drive.
Formatting is the process of setting up/preparing a storage device for first use, which includes main on-disk structures initialization, partitioning (dividing disk space into segments), and executing another file system's tasks.
Formatting can be done on almost every kind of storage device like a Hard disk drive, USB flash drive, external hard drive, and an SSD. Before formatting any type of hard drive, we recommend that you should form a backup of all the crucial files present inside the storage device. The backup will allow you to open and use the data again after the formatting is finished.
2. Reasons for Formatting the Hard Drive:
There may be multiple factors behind formatting a storage drive, we will discuss some of those reasons in this section of the article.
- Sluggish Speed: If your Hard Drive is old, then there is a chance that it has piled up a stack of unwanted cache memory or temporary files. It is easy to remove such files, but sometimes you can't seem to find them. This cluster of data can reduce the performance of the system. The only feasible solution is to format the entire Hard drive, which will release it from the burden of unnecessary files.
- Changing the File System: If you have decided to replace your computer or to switch from Windows to macOS, then you need to change the file system of your drive compatible with the Mac. To change the file system, formatting the disk is necessary.
- Clean the HDD from Unwanted Apps and Viruses: Windows PC is always prone to unwanted Malware, which puts the data and your personal information at risk. If you do not have anti-virus software on your computer, then you must format the entire drive to get rid of your malware problem.
Part 2. Types of Hard Drive Formatting For You to Choose:
There are two types of formatting procedure that the computer may ask you to choose, which we will discuss briefly:
- Quick Format.
- Full Format.
Quick Format:
The quick formatting process is used to make the formatting process quick. This method does not check the drive for bad sectors, so you must only opt for this method if your purpose is just to clear some space in the HDD. The major disadvantage of this method is that the data doesn't get completely wiped out so if your drive is still causing problems after the quick format, then you should perform a full format scan on your hard drive.
Full Format:
A Full Format is recommended if you believe that your computer is infected with malware and viruses. This method checks the hard drive for bad sectors, and it usually takes longer to erase data than a quick format.
If your drive is misbehaving and performing sluggishly, then you must perform a full format on your HDD. It is a better option to make sure no issues exist with the drive. You can initiate the formatting process by simply unchecking the 'Quick Format' tab and then clicking on Start.
Part 3. How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 7 by Disk Management?
The Disk Management utility:
The Disk Management Utility offers you the full management of the disk-based hardware(HDD) recognized by Windows, which also includes an external storage source. At the bottom end of Disk Management, you can see the graphical representation of the physical drives installed in your computer. Disk Management is the place that allows you to create and attach virtual hard disk files in Windows OS. You can create single makes, which acts like a Hard Drive, which offers you to store data on them from the primary hard drive or any other location like an external hard drive.
You can format your Hard disk drive with the help of Disk Management. The utility is an inbuilt Windows tool that can be used to perform the following functions:
- It enables the user to view and manage the disk drives
- It also helps in formatting the hard drive and creating new partitions.
- It provides the feature for you to convert an empty MBR to a GPT disk, and vice versa.
- Disk Utility also enables to extend and shrink partition.
- You can also change the disk volume's letter and paths with the help of this utility.
Precautions before formatting a Hard Drive:
If you are preparing to perform a reformat on your computer's hard drive, then you must take necessary precautions before moving forward with the process. The formatting method will erase absolutely everything on the disk if you don't make the right arrangements. Here are the things that you must do before cleaning the hard drive.
- Save your photos and videos on an external hard drive or sync them with a cloud storage service, like Google Drive or Dropbox.
- Write down the list of your computer's drivers and other third-party apps that you might want to use again.
- Copy all of your browser settings.
How to Reformat a Hard Drive?
Reformatting is the method of erasing the used space of a disk drive or the entire storage device. Such a scenario arises if you want to use a Mac-based disk with a Windows computer, you would need to reformat it using a Windows-compatible file system that would be the FAT32.
Here in this section, we will discuss the method to format and reformat a volume of the hard drive through the disk management utility.
- Type 'diskmgmt.msc' in the search box on the start menu.
- Click on Disk Management. The management window will open.
- Right-click the drive you want to format.
- Click on Format.
- Choose a file system. You can keep the rest as it is unless you have specific reasons to change it.
- Check the 'Perform a Quick Format' tab, if you want to format the drive quickly, otherwise keep the option unchecked.
- Click on OK.
After formatting a hard drive, you will find that the software program conflicts or glitches that were causing problems on your PC will disappear, and the computer's performance will improve significantly. You can perform this procedure on any kind of USB flash drive and external hard drive.
How to Format a New Volume of the Hard Drive on Windows 7?
New volumes are created if you intend to create new partitions or change the size of your volume. For example, if you have recently installed an SSD on your computer, then you will find an unallocated storage space where the previous version of your Windows OS was stored. You can create and format a new disk volume on a hard disk, with that unallocated disk space on your computer's hard drive.
Please follow our guide to create a new volume by assigning it a new name and formatting it.
- Open Disk Management.
- Right-click on unallocated space on your hard disk, which is located at the bottom of the window with the black graphical representation.
- Click on New Simple Volume and click on Next.
- Check the format this volume with the following setting option and click on Next
- You will be asked to assign a letter to the newly created volume.
- Click on Finish and the drive will be formatted.
Format Hard Drive And Reinstall Windows 10
Part 4. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive After Format?
After formatting your hard drive and losing all the data as a result, if you intend to use those files again, then there is a way to recover all of that data back. But, you should not save any new information on the formatted hard drive, or it will be overwritten entirely, so it is extremely essential to perform the recovery operation as soon as possible.
Recoverit by Wondershare:
You can recover your data by using data recovery software on your PC. We recommended that you use the Recoverit Data Recovery software for Windows to restore deleted files from the formatted hard drive in Windows 7.
Features of Recoverit:
- It offers fast scanning speed and a near 100% efficiency.
- It recovers data in almost every type of file format known in the tech world.
- Recoverit supports all types of File system formats like exFAT, FAT32, HFS, NTFS.
After installing the app, you are required to launch it from the Start menu by searching Recoverit and double-clicking on the icon. From there, you are required to follow our three-step process to recover deleted files.
1. Select the Location:
After the Recoverit data recovery software for windows is opened on the computer, then please follow the steps mentioned below:
- Select the 'Location' of the disk volume or folder.
- Click on the 'Start' button to initiate the process.
2. Scan for Lost Data:
- The scanning process will start. It will take some time for the scan to finish, depending on the storage space of the drive/folder.
- A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen with a beep tone.
- The results will be displayed, you can view them from the File Type and File Path section.
- You can pause or stop the scanning process by clicking the Pause button.
3. Recover the Lost Data:
- Recoverit allows users to Preview the recovered files to check their authenticity.
- You can select the files and retrieve them by clicking on the 'Recover' button to reclaim your data back.
Closing Words:
Formatting a drive on Windows 7 is an easy as well as fast, which saves the user both time and money. If in case your hard drive gets infected with some virus, then you must perform a full format on your drive. Now you know the way to create and delete partitions on your Windows PC by using the disk management utility. Formatting the disk means that your data will get erased with no trace, but Recoverit by Wondershare allows you to recover that data if you ever feel the need to use it again.
What's Wrong with Drive
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive
