How to Fully Format a Hard Drive? Step Guide
Summary: If you want to Fully format a hard drive, then you should know it is essential for erasing all data or preparing the drive for a new operating system or checking whether it is error-free. A complete format goes further than a quick format because it scans the whole drive for bad sectors and does a complete wipe on the data which makes it almost impossible to recover anything. Whether you just want to repurpose an old drive or sell the device, knowing how to fully format a hard drive will keep your data safe.
This guide will expose the reasons to do full format and the manual method of doing so, and the key tips in the process. Additionally, if you’re looking for more secure ways to safeguard sensitive information, you may also explore how to destroy a hard drive effectively.
Reasons to Perform a Full Format
There are several reasons why you want to perform a full format. Go through all the points:
- Use it properly and do a full format in addition ensuring that sensitive information is destroyed forever and prevent any data breach.
- Full format creates a fresh ground as no remaining files can hinder new operating system installation.
- Marks on a poor area are associated with scanning, altering the feasibility, as well as the execution of your drive.
- A full format may improve performance and speed in a drive because it deletes all unnecessary files and bad sectors.
- Full format, which physically overwrites every sector of the drive, can guarantee no recovery for deleted data in contrast to a quick format. Hence, a further redundancy in security.
Manual Methods to Fully Format a Hard Drive
Here are methods described below to fully format a drive. Go through all these steps shown below.
Method 1: Using File Explorer (Windows)
- Make certain that the hard drive has been rightly connected to your computer.
- Right click on the drive you want to format and then choose Format.
- Choose the file system to either of the following: NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT.
- Uncheck the Quick Format option.
- Click Start to begin formatting the disk with the full format.
Method 2: Using Disk Management (Windows)
- Firstly, right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Management.
- Then, look for the hard drive you want to format, right-click on it, and select Format.
- Next, assign it a drive label.
- Select a filesystem and deselect Perform a Quick Format.
- Now, confirm the action to perform a full format.
Method 3: Using Command Prompt (Windows)
- Firstly, run Command Prompt as an administrator role.
- Type diskpart, and then list disk to see all the drives connected.
- Use the select disk X statement, replacing X with the number of the drive
- Enter clean to wipe everything.
- Create a New Partition and Format:
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs
- Replace ntfs with whatever filesystem you wish.
Permanently Format a Hard Drive – Complete Wipe
It takes more than formatting to completely get rid of data on hard drives. A regular format or full format will make the files invisible, but advanced recovery tools can still recover them. For that, you can use SysTools fully Wipe Software to format a hard drive completely, which can secure your private data. It is just what is required.
Conclusion
Hard drive formatting can help in data security, preparation for new use, and optimal performance. For Windows users, this article provides a full guide on how to perform a full format properly. Ensure that you backup your important files before formatting. Always remember that this method is irreversible. Further, you could feel safer using professional tools for wiping sensitive data.
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