Format hard drive How to do it successfully?

For format hard drive and you do not know how, in this article, we detail all the necessary information so that you can do it. We will describe how format hard drive, from different methods, which means, when it is recommended to do it and more data of interest.

What does formatting hard drive mean?

Format hard drive, is a set of actions carried out with the objective of restoring a hard disk, an external storage device or any other that stores data, to its original condition; definitively eliminating the information contained.

In certain circumstances, you can make a partition of the disk, this means, generate different divisions or independent compartments within the hard disk, which support different formats of documents and files.

There are two kinds of formatting: the first is known as physical or minimal level formatting, it makes the hard disk return to its original condition, the idea is to eliminate or erase, by the head, all the areas that divide the disk and erasing all data. This is a slow procedure, so systematic to do it.

In the same way, it was used by the commercial house before the distribution of the equipment, so that the new owners will not access previous information left; however, with the advancement, newer hard drives do not require this type of formatting.

The second kind of formatting is logical or high level, this is done quickly and partially, it stands out for the edition of the file systems in each area within the disk, managing to erase only the selected ones.

In this way, it is possible to acquire the total space of the hard disk again, although the selected files are still excited; after time has passed and with the storage of new information, the previous ones are rewritten and become irretrievable.

How to format hard drive?

In this section we will describe the procedure for format hard drive:

Make a backup copy of all the information contained in your computer, use an external storage device for this, so it will be guaranteed not to lose any data. Although Windows gives you the option of preserving files, it is better to make a copy of them.
Look in Start, where the Windows icon is in the lower area of the computer screen.
Find the Settings option.
Give the previous option, a menu of options will be displayed, you must click on the "Update and security" button.
Immediately, on the right side, a new menu of options will be displayed, you must press the button "Recovery → Reset this PC ”and press Start.
A screen with several options will be displayed: first, remove the settings and applications while keeping the personal files, second, remove everything, settings, application and personal files and third, restore the factory settings. This last alternative, which dignifies is that, it will remove all the files, even the personal ones, and reinstall the version of Windows that came with the computer.
If you want to preserve personal files, choose the first option, click the OK button, and follow the procedure indicated on the computer screen.
The computer will start to restart and the formatting procedure will begin, this can last between 5 and 8 hours if you choose the second option, and a few hours less if you choose the first, however, in any of the options the procedure is slow, as well It is recommended to do it overnight.

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External hard drive

All external storage devices or external hard drive are formatted from the factory, however, the system on certain occasions may not be compatible with the computer, so, to solve this problem, it is best to format with a compatible system, the application you will use will depend on the operating system used.

Before formatting the external hard drive, it is advisable to make a backup copy, since after the procedure the data contained there will be erased.

Format external hard drive in Windows

To do this, press the Windows + X button and choose the option "Disk Management". An options menu will be displayed, right click on the icon of the external hard drive and choose "Format".

A window will appear, you must enter the name of the disk to be formatted and select the file system that you will use for formatting. The NTFS system is exclusively compatible with Windows, while exFAT is compatible with Mac and Windows. After "OK" the formatting process will start.

The formatting time will depend on the size or capacity of the hard disk.

Format external hard drive on Mac

You must first connect the external hard drive to one of the computer's USB ports. Immediately, display the option "Disk Utility", which is inside the "Applications → Utilities".

In this option of "Disk Utility", choose the external hard disk to format and hit the "Delete" button. An options menu will be displayed that is located towards the right side of “Format” and you will also have to select the file system that you will use to format the disk.

Finally, enter the name of the disk and click "Delete" to start formatting.

Format external hard drive in Linux

You will need to open “Terminal” and run “sudo apt-get install gparted ntfsprogs” to install the Gparted function. Immediately, you must connect the external hard drive to the USB port of the computer. On the desktop, right-click the disk and choose "Unmount volume."

Subsequently, go to Dash, enter "gparted" and click on the "Gparted Partition Editor", a menu of options will be displayed, you must click the disk with the right mouse button, and choose "Format".

Immediately select the file system with which you will do the process on the disk. Take into consideration that NTFS has exclusive compatibility with Windows, ext3 with Linux, while FAT32 can be used with any system.

Finally, hit the "Apply" button to start the formatting process.

Currently there are tools that allow you to carry out the formatting process in Windows that helps the work a lot. This section describes which ones exist and how to use them.

From the explorer

This is one of the most popular tools besides simple. What you have to do is open the file explorer menu, select the hard drive you want to format and click the icon with the right mouse button.

The "Format" option will be displayed on the screen. You must choose the file system that will be used for formatting and click on the "Start" option.

Then let the system finish the whole process.

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DFrom Windows Disk Manager

The file explorer opens in Windows, we look for the option "This computer" and we click on the disk icon with the right mouse button. Choose "Manage" and a menu appears to choose the hard disk to format and point over the icon with the right mouse button. Give it to "Format" and another window will be displayed.

Choose the file system and click "OK", then let the operating system do the rest of the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPvgLaXLx3A

From a program created by third parties

On this occasion, "Paragon Partition Manager" was found as a program. When the program is opened, a window will be displayed, where you must choose "Format Partition".

A window will open with a service wizard, it will take some time to open, you must click “Next”. Next, you must choose the hard drive for formatting. You must click the "Next" button, then you must select the file system that will be used to format the disk.

Then, follow the next steps and click "Next". In less than 10 minutes the hard drive will be formatted.

How to format Windows 10 hard drive?

With the Windows 10 operating system, you can format hard drive, simply and quickly, in a few minutes. First, you must back up all the files you have on your computer. Then, open the "Disk Manager", you must hit the "Start" button.

A window with a menu of options will be displayed, where the available hard drives, their partitions, files and the capacities of each one will be detailed.

The hard disk to be formatted must be indicated. In the case that the hard disk you want to format has several partitions, they must be formatted individually. Here are the steps to format a partition:

You must point to the partition drive with the right mouse button and select the "Format" option.
A window will be displayed, where a warning message will appear, select “Yes”.
If the user wants it, he can give an identification to the disk, select the file system and the size of the hard disk.
If you just want to do is erase the information, it is advisable to click on the "Quick format" button, in this way, the formatting process will last a few minutes.
Select the option "Accept".
You must validate the warning message that is redeployed. And in a few minutes, the partition will have been formatted.

The procedure described above must be repeated for each of the partitions to be formatted on the hard disk.

At the end of the formatting of each partition, click on each one of them with the right mouse button, and select the option "Delete volume" and click "OK". This must be done to each partition drive.

After deleting each volume from the partitions, the total disk space will become one.

One of the hard drives of the computer must be formatted immediately:

It must be marked with the right mouse button on the storage space to be formatted and that it is not allocated.
Select in "New simple volume".
You must select the capacity of the new disk, if you want to generate new partitions, in this step is when you must do and also assign the size, click "Next".
The label with the letter of the new hard disk is selected, it is given "Next".
You must choose the file system, the size of the disk and the identification of the volume, this identification will be the label of the hard disk from that moment, then give "Quick format" and "Next".
Finish, and the hard drive is formatted and the process takes a few minutes.

Later, you can start to generate folders, files and install the new operating system.

How to format hard drive from BIOS?

In this section we introduce you to another procedure to perform the hard disk formatting, and it will help to solve the problem of the computer. So that, format hard drive from Bios, is an aspect that you have to take into consideration, when using it.

This procedure is one of the simplest ways to perform it and it is not necessary to have knowledge to perform it yourself.

This can be considered one of the fastest ways to format the computer's hard drive, to begin with, it is necessary that you verify that you have a disc in the DVD drive, that is, it is the one that will become the operating system disc so that , then, it is taken into consideration that it becomes an element to create its format.

In this particular case, it should be noted that it is the most popular way because of its speed, to be able to format the hard disk, also, almost all users use it directly.

Once, with the operating system disc placed in the computer's DVD drive, you must look at the "Windows" option to get the computer to restart.

It is necessary to have the disc ready inside the computer's DVD drive, so that after completing the process, it will restart and load Windows, initially a screen will be displayed in the lower right area where it will say BIOS.

To access this area, generally, it is enough to press the F2 key on the keyboard or in other devices you must press is F10, and thus achieve direct entry. Although computers and hard drives can vary, these are the two most frequent keys to start everything.

Later, we will leave all the command options that allow access to Bios within Windows. In the particular case of computers manufactured by DELL, it is necessary to consider that the command keys are DEL and DEL, and with these you can quickly enter and access the storage device.

Here are the common commands used in BIOS:

Ctrl + Alt + S
Ctrl + Alt + Esc
Ctrl + S
Ctrl + Esc
Ctrl + F2
F1
F10

Once, you have entered BIOS, you must look for the option of "Advance bios features", once you have it, you must enter it, you will find an options menu, where you can see three options:

First boost device.
Second boost device.
Third boost device.

When you have already carried out the steps in each of the options described above, you must press the "Enter" button and a window will be displayed where the options menu where you must select the following sections:

First boost device give it "CD Rom".
Second boost device hit "Floppy".
Third boost device give "HDD-0".

Once this is completed, you must go to the "save and exit" option, and hit the "Enter" button, you can also exit and restart the computer or simply, by pressing the "y" key on the keyboard twice, you can start installing directly from the same disc that is inside the DVD drive.

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Windows operating system installation with BIOS

It is important to note that the procedure for installing Windows is similar to that performed for formatting, it does not matter, the version of Windows you want to install. However, it should be mentioned that a window with the Windows label will be displayed where you can select the Windows installation.

It is necessary to remember that this procedure will take approximately two or three hours, but the important thing is that you can perform the correct format.

Also, it can be indicated that, with this process, the alternative of the hard disk or better known as the C drive is pointed out to us. In the event that your computer has an additional storage unit, you can select any of the units and go through the formatting process.

Additionally, you must accept the contract conditions that Windows sends by default, and after doing this, you wait for the time to finish the installation, and then you can say that everything is ready to start the computer.

Similarly, it is important to note that the moment you want to perform the process of formatting a computer through BIOS, as we have described in this section, the procedure is simple and fast.

So you can get satisfactory results and have your C drive, partition drives, and additional hard drives ready, and keep your storage components working optimally.

It is important to note that the information is encrypted on the computer so it will depend on the user, the choice to delete this data or leave it, and thus, complete the installation, and the installation of Windows will be ready.

When to run

Next, the four main aspects to consider will be listed for a user to think about formatting their computer's hard drive:

If the computer is hard to start or does not start. If your computer has trouble starting or does not start, due to registry problems or failures, or if you see a black screen, one of the quickest options is to perform formatting. Performing the Windows system registry is a significant aspect to consider on the computer.

If for some reason, such as a modification in the system configuration or if you have some type of computer virus, the computer cannot start, formatting the hard disk would be the only way to optimize its operation again.

If you notice that your hard drive no longer has storage space. A user can use his computer for a long time and that means that the hard disk is filling with information, which may or may not be organized, which causes space for new information to be lost.

This usually occurs in users who do not use storage devices or external hard drives to ensure that the computer works properly. So it brings together documents and files that are not used and in addition to some temporary files that manage to occupy disk space.

So, formatting the disk is a useful option to erase files and all unwanted data.

Errors or failures in the system. If the computer is not operating optimally and failure messages or blue screens are displayed regularly, if you have a virus on the computer, if you have downloaded any program or software, or some spyware that may negatively affect the computer.

Performing the process of formatting the hard disk is an excellent alternative to make the computer's performance improve substantially.

Slow operability. If the user notices that his computer is not operating as it did regularly, and has become slow, he is probably having failures. The recommendation is to make a backup copy and format it, which will help solve the problems that are causing the computer to become extremely slow.

In this article, you could see the different techniques or methods to perform the formatting of hard drives, external storage drives and partition drives by different procedures, so that users have a practical and simple instruction manual to be able to do it. by itself, saving time and money, without having to be experts in this.