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Formatting a disk e. What is the “format c:” command? The operating system includes utilities that

When restoring an operating system or hard drive, it is very important to use all available methods. In addition to recovery programs, BIOS can act as an assistant during resuscitation.

Next, we will look at computer breakdown situations in which the BIOS can provide undeniable help. This way, you can restore the system through the BIOS with little effort, without resorting to expensive repairs or calling a specialist. In addition, formatting via BIOS does not require professional skills or special dexterity - it is only important to follow the sequence of actions when setting options, working with the command line and be careful when restoring the system or repartitioning the HDD.

How to format a hard drive via BIOS

When an HDD (hard drive) needs to be formatted, standard system recovery applications do not always help. Often the user does not even have the opportunity to use the operating system interface. Accordingly, formatting commands are not available, although there is, in fact, access to the hard drive.

For formatting we need . For these purposes, you can download an ISO image of Windows 7 - 10 from a torrent tracker or use a licensed copy of a bootable Windows distribution. There is no fundamental difference in choosing a boot distribution for subsequent disk formatting. You can also read our guide on recording a custom boot system image.

As soon as you have obtained the image of the system from which we will boot, you need to enter, in fact, the BIOS subsystem. To do this, restart your computer and hold down the Del or F12 keys on your keyboard during initial boot. They are designed to enter the BIOS on most motherboards. However, the BIOS initialization key may be assigned to another button - you need to find out in the user manual for the motherboard (don’t be lazy to find it and read it).

In Bios we are interested in the boot section. You can find it through the BootBoot – Device Priority tab. In any case, you need to find the settings section responsible for loading hard drives, CD/DVDs and flash drives. In this list, it is important to indicate the device from which you will download the image or disk with Windows to format the HDD.

After the described manipulations, exit the BIOS, saving the settings. Usually all you need to do is press the F10 key, accept the changes and reboot the machine.

Now we boot using the actual boot disk with Windows, and after starting the shell, we hold down the combination Shift+F10. This is necessary to access the Windows command line - in other words, the console. However, in more modern versions of the OS (Windows 8 and higher), you need to follow the path “select language” -> “diagnostics” -> “additional features” -> “command line”.

Be careful! Formatting a disk is an irreversible process. When formatting, you will not be able to get the data back. Therefore, it is very important to perform all operations carefully, understanding what you are doing.

Carefully check all the information before formatting the hard drive via BIOS: check if you have made a mistake with the drive letter. The fact is that the names of the disks may well not correspond to the system designations that you might remember. To be on the safe side, I advise you to double-check the data with the following command:

wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, size, description

Actually, you can use the following commands to format a disk:

  • format /FS:NTFS X: /q - quick formatting for disks in NTFS format
  • format /FS:FAT32 X: /q - disk repartition in the FAT32 file system

Alternative ways to format a hard drive through BIOS

  1. Through the Windows graphical installer shell. After selecting the language, select the full installation, select the hard drive, Configure and select the Format command.
  2. Using the ERD Comader program. This program allows you to compile a complete boot disk with system recovery tools. Next, we boot in the usual way through the resulting disk and select the Disk Cleanup item in the shell menu. After this, you can format the hard drive through the BIOS.

What to do if the BIOS does not see the hard drive or flash drive?

It also happens that in the BIOS settings, namely in the Boot section, you do not see a device - it could be a removable HDD, flash drive or other information storage device. There is no need to panic. Try the following options:

  1. Make sure the HDD is connected to the computer securely. It probably makes sense to check the performance of the hard drive on another PC. If it is detected correctly in the BIOS, you should replace the cable on your PC.
  2. Read your motherboard's manual, specifically the diagnostic section. It is possible that the section responsible for identifying hard drives is located in another partition. In addition, manufacturers sometimes indicate in the documentation the causes of such problems and provide options for solving them.
  3. If the bios does not see the flash drive, then it is likely that it does not support new USB drives or, in principle, does not work with flash drives and does not support booting from USB.

However, sometimes it happens that the hard drive is not detected in the BIOS due to failure. For information on how to restore a hard drive and diagnose a breakdown, read our HDD repair guide:

How to restore BIOS?

A BIOS failure is a very serious error that practically cannot be solved using simple methods. The fact is that the BIOS is essentially a chip inside the motherboard. If the BIOS has been damaged, its functionality can only be restored by replacing the same chip on the motherboard. This is a fairly expensive operation.

The most optimal method of restoring the BIOS is to completely replace the motherboard. This method has two obvious advantages:

  • You are upgrading your computer by purchasing a more modern motherboard
  • You quickly return your PC to working condition

The disadvantage of replacing the BIOS along with the motherboard is the cost of replacing the component. However, if the BIOS failure was not your fault, you can send the board for free repair to a service center under warranty.

Summary. We have looked at several basic ways to restore the system through the BIOS by formatting it through the Windows boot disk shell.

Question answer

Bios does not see the Samsung hard drive; when you turn on the computer, it makes one short beep and that’s it. When connecting a second working hard drive at the same time as this Samsung drive, the computer freezes.

Answer. It is possible that the bios does not detect the hard drive because it has failed (this could be mechanical or electronic). If there is a speaker attached to your PC's motherboard, it may produce a sound that can diagnose an HDD problem.

If possible, check the visibility of the hard drive on another computer, but the symptoms indicate that this is still a failure.

Instructions

Video on the topic

Helpful advice

You can request help with the formatting command. To do this, in the command line you need to type and run the command “format /?”. Help with a detailed description of the parameters will appear in the window.

Sources:

  • how to format a hard drive via command line
  • How to format a hard drive in Windows?

Formatting your hard drive is partitioning the disk space. Formatting must be done in case of failures in working with the disk or if it is necessary to quickly clear the contents of this disk. Sometimes it turns out that formatting a disk using standard methods does not allow you to achieve the final result.

You will need

  • Command line (cmd.exe).

Instructions

To start the formatting procedure for any, you need to run the "Command" utility. It allows you to perform a large number of operations on your system. How to launch " ": click the "Start" menu - select "All Programs" ("Programs") - section "Accessories" - item "Command Line".

After pressing "Enter" in the "command line" a new entry will appear: "ATTENTION, ALL DATA ON THE FIXED DISK C: WILL BE DESTROYED! Should you start formatting Y(yes)/N(no)?". When you click on "Y" (yes), the selected disk will be selected, otherwise formatting will not occur.

After completing the entire formatting process, the system may give you an error number - this means that the formatting operation was not completely completed. To determine the cause of the event, use this data:

0 Formatting completed successfully;

1 Invalid parameters were specified;

Click the "Start" button to start the formatting procedure.

Video on the topic

To completely remove the operating system or quickly clean up one of the hard drive partitions, it is recommended to use the formatting process. There are many ways to implement it.

You will need

  • Partition Manager.

Instructions

Almost any utility allows you to format a hard drive partition or USB drive in Fat32 format. First, try to do this without resorting to additional programs. Press the Win + E key combination to go to the “My Computer” menu.

Right-click on the local disk whose format you want to change and select "Format". In the File System field, select the Fat32 option.

Specify the standard cluster size and uncheck the “Quick (clear table of contents)” checkbox. Click the "Start" button. In the warning window that appears, click OK.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to change the file system using this formatting option. If you encounter this problem, download Paragon Partition Manager.

Install the downloaded application and restart your computer. Launch Partition Manager. Select advanced user mode. Right-click on the disk partition you want to format. Select "Format Partition".

Select the file system, in this case Fat32, and set a label for this volume. Click the "Format" button to start the process.

Unfortunately, the methods described above may not be suitable for formatting the partition on which the operating system is installed. In such situations, it is recommended to use Windows installation disks or LiveCDs.

Insert the DVD containing the operating system archives into the drive. Run the installer. If you are using a disk with Windows XP, then select the desired partition and press the F button in the next window to start the formatting process.

In the case of Vista or Seven OS, click the "Disk Setup" button. Select the required partition, click the “Delete” button. Now click the “Create” button and set the size and file system of the future local disk.

Video on the topic

Formatting hard drives of different models follows the same scenario. The sequence of actions depends only on the purpose for which this procedure is being performed.

Instructions

Copy the files you need for further work contained on the disk you want to format or make sure that you absolutely do not need them, since their recovery after formatting is unlikely.

If you want to format an Asus hard drive that is not installed in your computer as a system drive, then start the operating system. After Windows boots up, go to the My Computer menu.

Select the hard drive you need from among the connected devices. Right-click on it and select the “Format” menu item. A small program window will appear on your screen in which you will need to select operation parameters.

Select your hard drive file system. If the parameters allow, install NTFS; if not, then FAT 32. Here you can also be guided by your own preferences. Choose a formatting method, it is best to do it completely without using table of contents clearing.

Specify the name of the hard drive in the “Volume Label” line. Start the operation. Wait until the system performs all necessary actions. During this time, access to the disk and operations with it will be unavailable.

If you want to format your Asus system drive, then save all important files and folders on a separate hard drive or removable storage device. Restart your computer, and when you turn it on, press the Esc key. Using the menu that appears, configure booting from the drive and save the changes.

Insert the operating system disc into the drive. Enter the Windows installation menu. Select a new installation to any of the available drives. You can also install on an Asus drive that you want to format.

Following the instructions in the installation menu, install the operating system on your computer, having first selected to format the hard drive that you have selected as the system drive.

If you did not install to a disk that you want to format, go to “My Computer” and repeat the sequence of steps described at the very beginning.

note

There are 2 types of Windows 7 installation, after which the operating system works correctly:

  1. Direct update via a previously installed system, such as Vista.
  2. Clean installation with removal of the old OS, performed by formatting.

Advice! For a clean installation, you will need a disk or flash drive with the installation files of the new OS.

Why formatting?

In order for the new system to work without bugs and crashes, it is necessary to prepare a smooth platform for it by deleting old files. Manual deletion is not effective, so it is better to format the disks after copying the necessary information from them.

Deep formatting solves the following problems:

  1. Resetting all data and preparing the disk for the new operating system. Formatting removes “dead” files that no longer carry a functional load. Prevents the system from slipping after installation by clearing remnants of old games and programs, invisible Internet files and much more.
  2. Removes viruses and malicious files.
  3. Performs marking and systematization.

Important! If you unknowingly formatted a disk with the necessary information, then the Active Partition Recovery program will help you partially or completely restore it. Advanced EFS Data Recovery recovers and decrypts NTFS partitions.

Clean installation from a flash drive or disk with formatting via BIOS (BIOS)

Before formatting, you need to close all windows and then reboot the system. After startup, enter the BIOS, usually the Del, F12, F8 key is used for this command. After logging in, select the Boot-Device Priority tab in the BIOS, and select a disk or flash drive as the boot device. Next, save the priority of the device from which the boot will be made and press the F10 button to exit the BIOS.

When you restart your PC, the disk names are different from those you are used to. Therefore, for the disk to be formatted, enter on the command line: for systems NTFS format /FS:NTFS X: /q, and for FAT32 format /FS:FAT32 X: /q. After this, press Enter and wait for the process to complete.

Cleaning via BIOS using the OS installer

On Windows 7 and older versions of the OS, this is done directly during installation. At the stage of selecting the system disk on which to install, you need to go to the Settings section, select formatting and confirm it. Once completed, the installation process of the new operating system will continue automatically. All actions are performed in this order:

  1. Insert the media with the boot file of the new OS into the device, select the desired installation language.
  2. After determining the language, select Full installation.
  3. Now select the drive that requires formatting and go to the Disk Settings section.
  4. That’s it, click the “Format” button, wait for the process to complete and continue installing the fresh OS.

Important! Formatting permanently erases the data on the hard drive. Therefore, first copy the necessary files to any media.

Formatting via cmd (command line)

Complete cleaning via the command line is performed in the following order:

  1. Open the command prompt by pressing the Win-R keys.
  2. In the window that appears, type CMD and press Enter.
  3. Directly on the command line, enter “format *:”, where * is the name of the desired drive (C or D). Press Enter again.
  4. After clicking, a dialog box will appear asking you if you agree that all data on the selected drive will be deleted. Confirm and wait until formatting is complete.

Follow the algorithm of actions, and formatting will not cause difficulties

Formatting with Acronis Disk Director

To format a hard drive, it is most convenient to use the Acronis Disk Director program, although there are many others.

Advice! To download the program, enter the query “Acronis Disk Director Boot ISO” into the search engine. After downloading, mount the image or burn the program to a CD/DVD.

Set boot priority from disk in BIOS and wait for the program menu to appear on your monitor:

  1. In the window that appears, select the “Format” section, left-click on the desired drive and select “Format” again.
  2. In the new pop-up window, you can not change anything except the file system: it should appear as NTFS.
  3. Confirm the action in the window with the “Apply pending operations” checkbox.
  4. In the window that appears, click “Confirm”.

If you format the disk on which the OP was stored, then after formatting the computer will not boot. Further installation of the operating system is carried out from a flash drive or disk via BIOS.

Acronis Disk Director will be useful to you in the future; it has a number of useful functions:

  • restores damaged or deleted disk partitions;
  • has support for mirrored volumes;
  • distributes volumes to different disks;
  • converts regular disks into dynamic ones and vice versa;
  • optimizes the structure and free space on your hard drive.

Updated versions of the program are indispensable assistants in working with system disks.

What other programs can I use?

To format for a new operating system, the following software is most often used:

  • Convenient free program HDD Low Level Format Tool. Be careful, the developer promises that once cleaned, the files cannot be restored.
  • English-language program Paragon Hard Disk Manager, with the principle of operation similar to Acronis Disk Director. Formatting is done through the Format Partition.
  • Another program of this type is Partition Magic, which has received excellent reviews.

Formatting before installing a new operating system significantly improves its quality and service life. Formatting in one fell swoop gets rid of the old OS and all the garbage, along with viruses that have accumulated on the disk over the years.

Pay close attention to the entire process, especially when choosing the right disk. Some information cannot be restored after formatting, and in a service center such a service costs more than 4 thousand rubles.

How to format a hard drive: video

List of popular free programs for various types of formatting hard drives (HDD, SSD, RAID) and removable media (USB, Firewire, SD). In this article, you will learn how to properly format a hard drive and learn about various types of HDD formatting, including low-level. We will also choose a good program for partitioning the hard drive.

Methods for formatting HDD - from simple to complex

Formatting is a simple operation that can be performed by inexperienced users. Next, I will tell you how to format a HDD yourself - from simple to complex, depending on your skills and level of PC proficiency.

Using standard Windows tools when formatting

The Windows XP-10 operating system has built-in tools to perform this operation. Formatting a hard drive is done like this:

  1. Open “Explorer” (or another file manager),
  2. Go to the “My Computer” section
  3. Click on the desired drive
  4. Select “Format”
  5. Next, click on the “Start” button

This is the easiest way to format your computer without additional tools. Despite its simplicity, however, all stages must be performed consciously, clearly understanding why you are doing it. Before giving your consent to formatting, carefully check whether the drive is selected.

Perhaps the video instructions show more clearly how to format a disk.

An alternative formatting method in Windows 7/8/10

  1. Different systems have their own path to Disk Management - the easiest way is to open the search for programs and enter “management”. When the system displays a search result, find “Computer Management” and open it
  2. In the menu on the left, go to "Disk Management"
  3. Right-click on the desired partition and select Format. Since the process occurs inside a running OS, the “Format” menu item will be inactive on the system partition
  4. Next, select the label for the new partition, the type of future file system and the required cluster size (if you don’t know what size you need, leave “default”)
  5. For high-level formatting, you can leave the “Quick Format” checkbox active. If you need to deep clean the partition contents, uncheck this box.
  6. After clicking the “OK” button, the system will ask for confirmation - click “OK” again
Administration section "Computer Management"

Formatting a hard drive via the Windows command line

To start formatting, open a command line (console) on your computer. To do this, use the key combination WIN + R, in the “Run” window that appears, enter the CMD command, press ENTER.

Note. To format a disk via the command line, you will need administrator rights. Start - CMD - open the context menu by clicking on the application icon "Command Line" - Run as administrator. If you try to format the disk without administrator rights, you will not succeed: access will be denied. Anyway, watch the video where I show you how to format as an administrator.

To format via the console, use the following commands:

Format drive letter

Press Enter. We carefully read what is written in the console and perform further actions with the hard drive depending on the situation.

Full hard drive formatting via HDD Low Level Format Tool

Low-level formatting will optimize the HDD structure. This is useful when preparing to reinstall the operating system. At the same time, you can solve problems with bad sectors of the hard drive.

HDD Low Level Format Tool is suitable for low-level formatting. The utility will help you format your computer's hard drive, external HDD, tablet SD card and other storage devices.

In addition to the basic functions, HDD Low Level Format Tool can be used to read SMART indicators, check read errors, disk uptime, etc.

How fully format hard drive:

  1. After installation, run the HDD Low Level Format program
  2. In the Drive selection window, select the hard drive (if several HDDs are connected to the PC). The easiest way to distinguish one hard drive from another is by capacity. Click Continue
  3. Go to the LOW-LEVEL Format tab
  4. To quickly format (delete partitions and MBR records), select the Perform quick wipe option.
  5. To completely format the hard drive, the above option should be ignored
  6. Before completely formatting your hard drive, make sure you have selected the correct drive. Only then click the Format this device button.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

The program offers a number of useful functions, including low-level formatting of hard drives and most types of removable media. The interface resembles standard Windows tools, so it won’t be difficult to understand:

  1. The main window automatically displays the disk with the installed OS. If you need to format another device, select it by clicking “Disk” in the top menu
  2. In the lower block of the left menu, select “Erase hard drive”
  3. When you click this button, you will be prompted for the number of passes for the operation. If you plan to restore destroyed data in the future, then select a value from 1 to 7. If you specify a parameter of 8 or more, it will be almost impossible to recover information from the device
  4. Confirm your choice by clicking "Yes"
  5. To start formatting, you will need to reboot the system - once you click the “Reboot Now” button, there is no turning back, so make sure you have selected the correct disk and the desired operation settings

After restarting the computer, the program will perform all the specified actions and you will have a clean hard drive at your disposal.

DiskWipe

DiskWipe is an excellent solution for situations where data on storage media needs to be destroyed beyond recovery. The program uses several proven algorithms (Dod 5220-22.M, US Army, Peter Guttman), and advanced settings allow you to select the formatting depth. According to the developers, the program does not contain hidden viruses, etc., and also does not transmit user data.

It’s extremely easy to format the desired device using DiskWipe:

  1. Launch the program. In the block on the left you will see all devices available for formatting
  2. Select the desired device and click "Wipe Disk" in the top menu
  3. Advanced settings will open with preset standard values. For complete and irrevocable formatting, you can check all available fields and indicate “Highest” in the right block
  4. After selecting settings and clicking “OK”, formatting of the selected device will begin

Paragon Partition Manager

A test period of 30 days allows you to evaluate the capabilities of the program and format the desired devices in various modes. Since Paragon Partition Manager has several options for working with partitions (partitioning, recovery, and others), it is distributed shareware.

The formatting process is intuitive:

  1. In the main window, click "Partition Manager" in the menu on the left, then select "Launch Partition Manager"
  2. From the proposed list of devices, select the one you need, open the context menu with the right mouse button, and click “Format partition”
  3. Specify the type of future file system and volume name, then click “Format”
  4. The procedure will be queued - to apply the changes, you must click on the green checkmark in the top menu
  5. After confirming the operation (the “Yes” button), it will no longer be possible to stop its execution.

Separately, it is worth noting the fact that Paragon Partition Manager not only formats the device, but also creates a new partition with the specified file system, so after the system boots, the disk can be used without additional actions.

reference Information

What is formatting?

Disk formatting is the procedure of applying marks to a data storage device - a hard drive (HDD), memory card, CD/DVD or other storage medium. The formatting operation is equally useful for new and “worn” HDDs that have served their life.

A disk that has no partitions is absolutely useless. In addition to the fact that you apply markup to the disk, formatting deletes all data almost irrevocably (although there is). Therefore, you need to be careful and prepare in advance to format your hard drive.

Over the years of operating the operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Linux), the hard drive turns into a “garbage dump”, since many programs leave their files on the disk, and after uninstallation, their “roots” still remain on the HDD. As a result, the system is slow and unstable. There are various freezes, slowdowns, noise - it behaves inappropriately. After reformatting, the hard drive is optimized and begins to work better. Many devices last a long time without this procedure. I advise you to insure yourself and format your hard drive at least once a year.

Sooner or later, formatting the disk is inevitable. However, before doing this, it is very important to update or reinstall the operating system on your computer. Along with removing unnecessary files, you get a completely clean environment without defects, harmful viruses, unused programs, and data that lead to conflicts. Thus, before reformatting the hard drive, we reinstall the OS.

Before formatting, back up all important data to another drive. As already mentioned, during this procedure, various service information and marks are written to the disk, which allow information to be written to the HDD in the future without hindrance.

Steps to format a hard drive

    Low level– at this stage, basic markings are applied to the disk at a low level. Typically, this is done by the hardware developer. In this case, special tracks and service data are written to the disk. This information remains on the hard drive almost forever - it can only be overwritten using proprietary utilities. These programs can only replace service data. By the way, if you perform low-level formatting of the hard drive, then you will no longer be able to recover data later, unfortunately or fortunately. Therefore, if your goal is to destroy information, then you can use this format.

    Section breakdown. It is clear that storing data on a disk without partitions is quite inconvenient. For some logical organization, the HDD is divided into special zones, disks - drive C:, drive D: and so on. For these purposes, both utility utilities built into the OS and external programs for formatting the hard drive, which I have already written about more than once, can be used.

    High level. During this type of reformatting, boot sectors and file tables are created.

Types of disk formatting

You may know that standard system tools provide 2 methods by which you can format a hard drive - external or internal:

    quick formatting: takes less time, allows you to carry out the procedure as is. The point is that with this type of computer formatting, the files in the file table are overwritten with zeros, while the data is stored as if nothing had happened, and you can later restore it. Also, with this method you do not optimize the file structure, and if there were defects on the hard drive, you will not fix them with the quick method

    normal formatting: Longer and deeper formatting of the hard drive. The data on the internal or external drive is completely destroyed, the file system is checked for possible errors and damage. bad sectors, bad blocks. Thus, with the usual reformatting method, you kill two birds with one stone, although you lose a little more time.