Using Command Prompt to Format a Hard Drive: What You Need to Know

Formatting one of the best hard drives or SSDs is the same as buying a new hard drive since the process erases all the data in one fell swoop. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as external storage media.

In this tutorial, we explain how you can format a hard drive using the command prompt. Before proceeding further, make sure you backup all available data to prevent data loss. Follow the steps below to format a drive:

STEP 1:    Open Command Prompt As Administrator

Opening the command prompt.

Search for command prompt, right click and run as Administrator.

STEP 2:    Use Diskpart

Using diskpart

Once command line is open, type 'diskpart' and press Enter.

STEP 3:    Type List Disk

Using list disk

The above command will open a Diskpart window. In this window, type 'list disk' and press Enter. It will list all the available drives.

STEP 4:    Select the Drive to Format

Formatting a drive.

Now type 'select disk (disk number)' as shown above. Specify the drive number which needs to be formatted.

STEP 5:    Clean the Disk

Using the clean function.

In this step, type 'clean'. This command will permanent delete all files and folders, and successfully clean up the disk.

STEP 6:    Create Partition Primary

Creating primary partition.

To make the drive again accessible, type 'create partition primary'.

STEP 7:    Format the Drive

Now format the drive with FAT or NTFS file system. Type 'format fs=ntfs' and press Enter.

STEP 8:    Assign a Drive Letter

Assigning a drive letter.

To assign a drive letter, you can type 'assign' as shown above.