How to format my hard drive from CMD in Windows?

If you have bought a new hard drive it is recommended to format it before use in order to leave it factory, of course you cannot format a hard drive while using the operating system , to do so you will need to start the Windows installation process, but you should know that once formatted data cannot be recovered.

It is recommended to backup the drivers of your PC before formatting, the same with the information that you consider important. Likewise, you can format a disk partition or a complete new one from the CMD command console or, failing that, with an external program.

Index( )

1. What is the difference between a quick format and a full format?
2. How to create a backup of my hard drive?
3. What steps should be followed to format the hard drive from CMD?
4. Best alternatives to CMD to format hard drive from Windows
   1. EaseUS Partition Master Tool
   2. Con MiniTool Partition Wizard

What is the difference between a quick format and a full format?

A quick format is completely different from a complete one, since the quick one is limited only to deleting files with the function of assigning a new format to the disk. But a full format deletes files, scans for bad sectors and also restores the deleted file system.

In other words, if you want to format a flash drive and its file system, you must perform a complete format , otherwise, you will only be deleting information, without restoring files or checking sectors.

How to create a backup of my hard drive?

If you are going to format a hard drive with data or with some operating system, you have the option to create a Backup from a third-party software , or you can also create a backup in Windows from the settings. To do so you just have to:

1. Go to Windows settings and enter the ‘ Update and security‘ section.
2. Click on the ‘Backups’ tab in the menu on the left.
3. Click on ‘Add drive’ and the scan starts.
4. Select the diskwhere the backup will be saved.
5. Already added enter where it says ‘More options’.
6. Click on ‘make a backup’ and you’re done.

You should know that you have the option to customize the time you want to make backups automatically . Also, you can restore the saved backup from the same section.

What steps should be followed to format the hard drive from CMD?

With the CMD or command prompts, you can format any disk that is connected to the computer, for this you just have to:

1. Open CMD with administrator permissions.
2. Run the ‘ Diskpart‘ command.
3. Once the command is loaded, you type ‘list disk’ and the available disks are displayed.
4. You must select the disk to format with the command ‘select disk D’ (The D is an example).
5. Already selected, now run the ‘Clean’ commandto clean our.
6. Then, run the ‘Create partition primary’ command to restore your partition.
7. Finally, to assign a format to it, execute the command ‘formatfs=NTFS’.

Best alternatives to CMD to format hard drive from Windows

The best way to create and format a hard disk partition , or a completely new one, is to use tools, since they offer icons in their interface, which when pressed executes the action used in the CMD to format the disk , for those are great alternatives. The most common recommended by users are the following:

EaseUS Partition Master Tool

With EaseUS Partition Master we can clone an entire disk or, if you prefer, just a specific partition or data in order to have a backup. In addition to offering us the options for a backup, it allows us to format the hard drives in a simple way , you just have to click on the tool and confirm the process.

You will notice that there is an assistant that recommends the actions, in addition to showing us the information before any action. Also, if you want to create a home or business user, enjoy extra tools according to your account .

Con MiniTool Partition Wizard

Also MiniTool Partition Wizard will be able to format a hard disk without problems in addition to assigning it a format, checking sectors and restoring files or backup copies. Of course, you should always use the NTFS format for a drive, as this is the format used to accept files larger than 4 GB in size.

Also, the interface offers you two options when saying an action, either do it manually or perform the actions from a wizard , it also allows you to create bootable units with the MBR system, it is a really useful software when managing a hard drive.