How to Reformat a Hard Drive in Windows 11/10 and Mac [2022 Guide]
In the process of dealing with hard drives, sometimes you may want to reformat a hard drive or an external hard drive to its factory settings so as to start from scratch. However, before you start, it's essential that you create a backup of your disk so to keep everything secure and intact in your disks.
Hard Disk Backup in Windows [Beginners Guide]
Are you looking for a complete and easy guide to create a hard disk backup on your computer? Stay here and follow through with this beginners' guide, you'll learn how to back up your computer hard disk data easily on your own.
In this article, you'll learn:
- 1. Do you know when to format or reformat your hard drive?
- 2. What format should you format the hard drive?
- 3. How to reformat a hard drive in Windows or Mac?
It doesn't matter if you are not quite clear about the answers. Follow the guide below, and you'll learn how to reformat your hard drive with success effectively.
When to Format or Reformat a Hard Drive
People may have different purposes or moments to format or reformat their hard drives. Check the list here. And, if you currently are facing one of the situations, you may need to reformat the hard drive on Windows or Mac computer:
- Hard drive gets full, but not many files are saved inside
- Hard drives or computer gets slower that you want to format it for a fresh restart
- Format a hard drive to factory settings for sale
- Format a hard drive to quickly clear all content
- Format to change a hard drive file system
- Reformat a hard drive from BIOS for reinstalling OS
- More...
What Format or File System Should You Reformat the Hard Drive To
You'll need to reset the file system format during the formatting process. Are you clear about which format to set?
Here is a list of file systems that you may take a referral and decide which to set for your HDDs, SSDs, or even external hard drives:
- NTFS - New Technology File System, the default and modern Windows file system.
If you plan to format your hard drive for OS re-installation, use it as a data drive in Windows, store big files, or set the format of your hard drive as NTFS.
- FAT32 - Small-sized drive format within 64GB or requested format for gaming drive.
If you are planning to reset your USB or external drive to a new format, or you want to set up your drive for storing games, take this format.
- exFAT - Ideal format for big-sized external hard drives.
If you plan to use a big USB or SD card, you can set it in this format as it performs fast and is stable in transferring files. The reading and writing speed is also faster than FAT32.
- Ext2/3/4 - Linux file system for specific usage.
If you want to create a Linux format drive, set your drive like this.
- HFS/HFS+/APFS - macOS format.
If you want to make a hard drive usable on Mac, you can set the file format as HFS, HFS+, or APFS.
So how to reformat a hard drive on Windows or Mac? First, check and follow the tips below. You'll get a full guide on reformatting your hard drive on Windows and Mac computers. Let's start here.
How to Reformat a Hard Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7
If you are a Windows user, follow the methods here, you'll be able to change your hard drive format on your own successfully.
#Tip 1. Reformat a Hard Drive in File Explorer or Disk Management
If you want to quickly format a working hard drive on a Windows computer for new usage, you can directly format it using File Explorer or Disk Management:
Reformat Hard Drive with File Explorer
Step 1. Press Windows + E to open File Explorer.
Step 2. Find the hard drive partitions, right-click one of them, and select "Format".
Step 3. Set the file system as "NTFS" or other formats, and tick "Quick Format".
Step 4. Then, click "Start" to let the computer format your drive.
Repeat the process until you complete reformatting the target drive.
Reformat Hard Drive in Disk Management
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc and click "OK" to open Disk Management.
Step 2. Find and right-click partitions one by one on the target drive, and select "Format Volume".
Step 3. Set the file system as "NTFS" or other formats, tick "Quick Format", and click "OK".
Repeat the process until you complete formatting all partitions on the hard drive.
# Tip 2. Reformat Hard Drive with or Without Operating System
If you are looking for an even simpler or more reliable solution to help you format a hard drive, even an operating system, you can't miss Qiling Partition Master. It's professional in managing hard drives and switching disk partition formats.
You can directly apply this software to reformat a hard drive with or without an operating system. Let's see the details.
Reformat a Data Hard Drive in Simple Clicks
Step 1. Run Qiling 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/EXT4/exFAT), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click "Proceed".
Step 3. Then you will see a warning window, click "OK" in it to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.
Reformat (OS) Hard Drive in BIOS Without Booting Windows
When you want to clean an OS drive for reinstalling Windows or just want to clean the drive content without booting into OS fully, Qiling Partition Master can fulfill your need.
To do so, you'll need first to create a WinPE bootable disk to an empty USB drive and then apply it to format the drive in BIOS:
#1. Create a Bootable Disk
Step 1. To create a bootable disk of Qiling Partition Master, you should prepare a storage media, like a USB drive, flash drive or a CD/DVD disc. Then, correctly connect the drive to your computer.
Step 2. Launch Qiling Partition Master, find the "Create bootable media" feature on the tools page. Click on it.
Step 3. You can choose the USB or CD/DVD when the drive is available. However, if you do not have a storage device at hand, you can also save the ISO file to a local drive, and later burn it to a storage media. Once made the option, click the "Proceed" button to begin.
When the process finishes, you have successfully created an Qiling Partition Master WinPE bootable disk. Now, you can manage your hard disks and partitions through the bootable drive whenever the computer fails to boot normally.
If you have RAID drives, load the RAID driver first by clicking Add Driver from the menu bar, which can help you add the driver of your device under WinPE environment, as some specific device cannot be recognized under WinPE environment without drivers installed, such as RAID or some specific hard disk.
After this, connect the bootable USB to your PC and restart the computer. Press F2/F8/Del to enter BIOS, and set the bootable disk as the boot drive.
Then save the changes and boot the PC from the bootable disk created by Qiling Partition Master.
#2. Re-Format Hard Drive from BIOS
Step 1. Click the hard drive partition and choose the "Format" option.
Step 2. In the new window, set the Partition label, File system, and Cluster size for the partition, then click "Proceed".
Step 3. You can see a warning window, click "OK" to start formatting the hard drive partition.
How to Reformat a Hard Drive in macOS
When it comes to formatting a hard drive on Mac, Disk Utility is always the best option for Mac beginners. However, some advanced users may also run Terminals for help.
Note: We also recommend that you back up essential data on the drive first before reformatting it.
If your drive is in NTFS format, you can first mount it to Mac and access its data via reliable NTFS for Mac software - Qiling NTFS for Mac. Then, you can refer to this guide to get your NTFS drive readable on Mac.
After backing up all data, you can then refer to the next guidelines to reformat your hard drive on Mac
#Tip 1. Reformat Hard Drive on Mac Using Disk Utility
Step 1. Go to Application, click "Utilities", and double-click "Disk Utility" to launch the tool.
Step 2. Select your hard drive on the left pane, then click "Erase" at the top panel.
Step 3. Set the file format to your hard drive, like MS-DOS or other formats, and click "Erase" to confirm the operation.
#Tip 2. Reformat a Hard Drive on Mac Using Terminal Command
Step 1. Press command + Space to bring up Spotlight.
Step 2. Then type terminal and hit Return to launch it.
Step 3. Type the following command lines and hit Return each time to format the target hard drive:
sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
You can replace FAT32 with another format as you want.
Step 4. When the formatting completes, close the Terminal window.
Reformatting a Hard Drive Could Be Easy, You Can Do It On Your Own
On this page, we discussed why and when people need to reformat a hard drive in Windows and Mac. However, no matter which method you decide to use, don't forget to backup your data in the hard drive.
You can simply format the drive with reliable disk formatting tools like File Explorer or Disk Management on a Windows computer. However, to format a drive in BIOS, you can fully rely on Qiling Partition Master.
Both Disk Utility and Terminal work in formatting drive on a Mac computer. But Disk Utility is more user-friendly for Mac beginners.
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