What Format To Use For External Hard Drive

Before proceeding to format the external hard drive, you need to know about file systems that are particularly associated with the operating systems. File systems are the key parts of translation from the physical data recording on a hard drive to the files that are read by operating systems only. The hard drive was still good, and it was converted into an external hard drive to get all my files back. My problem: The old hard drive had 500Gb of memory. Yesterday I thought I could use it, and it only shows 19Gb. The external drive should be automatically detected and will prompt you to format the drive or keep it as a device used to store only photos, video and music. You will need to format the drive if. Plug your external hard drive into your PC, go to 'This PC,' then right-click it under 'Devices and drives' and click 'Format.' Here you'll be presented with a number of options, but the ones we're focusing on are 'File System,' which you want to change to exFAT, and 'Allocation unit size.'.

• External Hard Drive Won't Format
• [Fix] You Need To Format The Disk Before You Can Use It
• How To Format External Hard Drive Mac

Ashwani Tiwari | Published: January 3, 2019 | Windows Error

'I have been using Toshiba Canvio Advance 3TB external HDD from the last 6 months to store my games and documents. Unluckily, the last night when I plugged my hard drive with PC I frequently received an error 'you need to format the disk before you can use it'. Now I am looking for a possible solution to fix format disk error in the external drive. I really do not want to lose my data because of drive formatting. But, this message is scratching my mind because it pops-up every minute on my computer screen. Thus, I urgently need a method that can fix format disk error without formatting. Please help!'

It is a very common issue where a user connects an external drive with the system and Windows says to format the disk before using it. And, we all know that formatting a drive means to say goodbye to all your previous data forever. However, there is no user wants to lose all its precious data, or memorable images within a single minute because of format disk error in the external hard drive. Therefore, in this article, we are going to discuss the actual reason behind this you need to format disk error and troubleshooting methods that can fix format disk error in an external hard drive.

What Will You Find Here?

Why ‘Format the Disk' Error Appears?

On the primary level, every hard drive requires to be formatted in order to prepare the data items with a particular file system. In such a case when the external drive has not been ready for using the system OS. It signifies that the drive and system need to be formatted in the same way. Else it will generate external hard drive format disk error.

However, when a user abruptly plugs-out the external storage devices such as SD Card, HDD without using Safely Remove mode. It will result out corruption in the partition table of the portable devices. Adding to it, the drive becomes RAW which is further not readable by Windows system. As a result, you need to format the disk before you can use it error message pops-up on the screen.

Steps to Fix External Hard Drive Format Disk Error

Here, we are going to discuss top 2 workarounds that can fix this external drive format error. So, let's get started without wasting precious time!

Method 1: Fix You Need to Format Disk Error Without Formatting

The first preferred workaround is to scan the external drive with a licensed anti-virus program. It will use to check any malware program in the drive that might be causing this error. However, this solution can remove the important data file that has been highly damaged by the virus. So, use this method on your own risk to fix external hard drive showing format disk error, if the problem is not resolved, then move to the second solution.

Note: – If your storage device formatted and you want a trusted solution then find the best software to recover data from formatted hard disk.

Method 2: Fix Format Disk Error Without Formatting Using CMD

Find here separate solution to resolve external hard drive showing format disk error in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP etc.

Fix Need to Format Disk Error In Windows XP Using CMD

1. Navigate to Start and click on Run.
2. After that, type ‘cmd' in the Open box and hit Enter.
3. Next, type ‘chkdsk' in order to use the utility in read-only mode and press Enter.
4. In order to fix the errors without scanning any bad sector, type ‘chkdsk disk volume:/f' and hit Enter, where disk volume represents the drive letter.
5. If a user needs to repair the problem along with scanning of bad sectors, then execute ‘chkdsk disk volume:/r' and hit the Enter key.

Fix Need to Format Disk Error in Windows 8 or 8.1 Using CMD

1. Initially, you need to sign in Windows 8 or 8.1.
2. Now, press Windows along with C key in order to open Charms bar.
3. Select Search and type cmd.
4. Now, you need to perform right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
5. After that, log in as administrator and type the following mentioned command: chkdsk drive volume: /f /r

Fix External Drive Need to Format Error in Windows 10 Using CMD

1. Click on Start button and type cmd.
2. From the search results, select the Command Prompt icon and right click on it. Then, select Run as administrator.
3. Next, execute the following command in the prompt: chkdsk drive letter: /f /r

Note: – You may also want to know how to increase C drive space without formatting the disk.

Use Professional Solution to Secure all Your Import Files & Folders

If the error you need to format the disk before you can use it fixed, and you lost some files or the none of the above solution works for you. And the forcefully you have to format your external disk. Now, the next comes in users mind is, by doing formatting all the data files get erased from the drive. So, in order to avoid data loss try this Hard Drive Recovery Software. It is a tool that can recover data from a formatted drive easily. Actually, after formatting, the data remain kept in the drive until it is overwritten by any other data. So, it is advised that when you format the drive, then stop using it and try this utility.

Bottom Line

Getting an error you need to format the disk before you can use it, that says to format the disk while plug-in the external storage device is very annoying. Therefore, in this technical post, we have discussed the top 2 methods that can fix format disk error in the external hard drive. So, use the method as per your convenience. Here you also found the solution for how to fix format disk error without formatting using CMD?

Here on this page, we'll include two free methods to help you quick format or fully clean up a hard drive on Windows 10/8/7 with ease:

Formatting hard disk, USB flash drive, pen drive, and memory card, etc., is meaningful and helpful in solving some device issues. For examples:

1. e.g. 1. Incompatible file system error:
2. In most cases, you have to convert FAT32 to NTFS or NTFS to FAT32 by formatting so to make storage devices recognizable by Windows, Mac, or other platforms.

e.g. 2. To format and clean hard drive for Windows installation.

1. e.g. 3. The hard drive is corrupted or it contains soft bad sectors:
2. When device access is denied due to the RAW file system, then Windows asks you to format it before you can use it.

DiskPart Format vs Hard Drive Formatting Tool

Generally, there are three ways to initiate the task - Windows quick format (by right-clicking or using Disk Management), Windows DiskPart command, or a free third-party hard drive format tool.

Windows quick formatting is easy to get started but with limited functions, so the last two options become better choices. What's the difference though? And which way fits you the best?

Here is a feature comparison list between DiskPart Format Command and EaseUS free formatting tool for you to refer to:

For experienced users, you may run DiskPart command to format the disk on your own with instructions in Fix 1 for help. As a beginner, who prefers an easier resolution, we suggest you try the free formatting tool as an alternative to replace DiskPart format command as recommended in Fix 2.

Download free DiskPart alternative formatting tool:

Fix 1. Format Hard Drive Using DiskPart Format Command

To use DiskPart to format a disk, you need to follow the commands below carefully. Any mistakes will cause serious problems.

Here we'll take the method of formatting hard drive using CMD on Windows 10 as an example to show you to detail steps:

# 1. Quick Format Disk Using DiskPart Format Command

Step 1. Open Command Prompt by right-clicking on the Windows icon, select 'Search' and type: command prompt.

Right-click on Command Prompt and select 'Run as administrator'.

Step 2. Type diskpart in Command Prompt and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type DiskPart format command lines in DiskPart and hit Enter each time so as to quick format hard drive:

• list disk
• select disk 2 (Replace 2 with your disk number)
• list volume
• select volume 10 (Replace 10 with the volume number of the partition that you want to format)
• format fs=ntfs quick (If you need to format a hard drive partition to FAT32 or other file systems, replace NTFS with FAT32, exFAT, etc.)

Step 4. Type exit and hit Enter to close the program when DiskPart reports it has successfully formatted the volume.

# 2. Fully Clean and Format Disk Using CMD Command in DiskPart

Step 1. On Windows 10, press Windows + X, select 'Search', and type command prompt, right-click on it and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 2. On the Command Prompt black window, type diskpart and hit 'Enter'.

Step 3. Now type list disk and press 'Enter'.

All the disk drives will be listed, including your external drives that connected to the computer.

Step 4. Refer to the list disk information, type select disk + disk number, for example, select disk 2 and press enter.

You're telling DiskPart to locate and lock disk 2 so as to clean and format it with the continuing steps.

Step 5. Go on to type clean. This step starts to clean up all files and folders on the selected hard disk.

Step 6. Type create partition primary and press 'Enter'.

Step 7. After DiskPart successfully created the specified partition, type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press 'Enter'. You're telling DiskPart to format the disk to a specific file system, let it be NTFS, exFAT, etc.

Step 8. At last, assign a drive letter to the newly created partition by typing assign.

Step 9. Type exit to close the DiskPart Command Prompt window when the process finishes.

That's a complete guide of formatting hard disk with DiskPart format commands.

Fix 2. Format Hard Drive with DiskPart Alternative - Free Formatting Tool

The other easier way to format disk is to apply a powerful DiskPart alternative formatting tool - a free partition manager software for help.

Here we'd like to recommend you try EaseUS Partition Master Free. It offers easy steps to help you quickly format or clean up an internal HDD, an external USB stick, pen drive, or an SD card, etc. within only a few simple clicks.

Download EaseUS free disk formatting tool and follow the guide below to see how to format the disk.

External Hard Drive Won't Format

The whole process is simpler and smoother than formatting hard drive from using DiskPart command prompt.

# 1. 4-Steps: Quick Format Hard Drive using DiskPart Format Alternative

Step 1: Run EaseUS 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), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

# 2. Clean Up Hard Drive by Erasing Disk with EaseUS Free Formatting Tool

Compared to the DiskPart clean command, EaseUS Partition Master Free simplifies the whole process in cleaning up a hard drive.

With it, you can simply erase everything on a hard drive, leaving it as an empty new drive with full size:

Step 1: Install and launch EaseUS Partition Master.

Select the HDD or SSD which you want to wipe. And right-click to choose 'Wipe Data'.

Step 2: Set the number of times to wipe data.

You can set to 10 at most. Then Click 'OK'.

Step 3: Check the message.

A message tells you that the computer would restart after disk erase is recommended. Then click 'OK'.

Step 4: Click 'Apply' to apply the changes.

Click 'Execute the operation' and then click 'Apply' to start wiping data.

Bottom Line

On this page, we included two major free methods to help you clean and format a hard drive disk by using DiskPart format command lines and DiskPart alternative - EaseUS free formatting tool.

According to many Windows managers and experienced users, you may also try to format a hard drive by using File Explorer and Disk Management on your own.

For quick and smooth operation, EaseUS Partition Master Free should be your best shot.

People Also Ask About Diskpart Format Command

If you are having further DiskPart formatting questions, check the following questions and listed answers for help.

1. How do I use Diskpart?

As DiskPart can execute many operations via different command lines, here we concluded a few of them to help you managing hard disk.

To create a partition: (Open Command Prompt and hit Enter each time.)

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk 1
• create primary partition size=10000mb (or more)
• format fs=ntfs (or other file system)
• assign letter=D (or other drive)
• exit

More details about extending or deleting partitions with CMD, you may refer to Manage Partitions with CMD.

You may also run DiskPart command to perform the following operations:

1. #1. Format or clean a disk (as shown on this page in Fix 1)
2. #2. Show hidden files using CMD
3. #3. Check and fix disk error using cmd
4. #4. Recover deleted files using command prompt
5. #5. Fix and repair hard drive errors using CHKDSK command

2. How long does DiskPart take to format?

Being it similar to the Windows formatting feature, you can always apply DiskPart format command to format a hard drive within minutes or half an hour, depending on the hard drive capacity and used space on it.

As estimated, to do a 'full' format on a 1TB hard disk in Windows, it will take a long time, like 2- hours, and over a USB 2.0 connection, it may take a day!

If it gets stuck or takes forever to format a hard drive using DiskPart format cmd, refer to Hard Drive Takes Forever to Format Fixes for help.

[Fix] You Need To Format The Disk Before You Can Use It

3. What is the command to format a partition with the NTFS file systems?

Follow the process to format a partition with NTFS file system:

1. 1. Right-click Windows icon, 'Search', and type 'CMD' and then right-click Command Prompt to select 'Open as Administrator'
2. 2. Type 'list disk' into the command prompt without quotes and hit Enter.
3. 3. Type 'select disk 1' without quotes and hit Enter. (Replace 1 with the disk number of your own hard drive.)
4. 4. Type 'list volume' without quotes and hit Enter.
5. 5. Type 'select volume 1' without quotes and hit Enter. (Replace 1 with the target partition number on your drive.)
6. 6. Type 'format d: /fs: ntfs quick' without quotes and hit Enter. (Replace d: with the drive letter of your target partition.)
7. 7. Type 'exit' and hit Enter to close the command prompt.

How To Format External Hard Drive Mac

For further resolutions, check the How-To page or use the Search option on our website - https:www.easeus.com to find more exact solutions bases on your issues.