How to format a hard drive with data. How to format a hard drive in different ways

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

Direct update via a previously installed system, such as Vista.
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:

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.
Removes viruses and malicious files.
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. After completion, the installation process of the new operating system will continue automatically. All actions are performed in this order:

Insert the media with the boot file of the new OS into the device, select the desired installation language.
After determining the language, select Full installation.
Now select the drive that requires formatting and go to the Disk Settings section.
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:

Open the command prompt by pressing the Win-R keys.
In the window that appears, type CMD and press Enter.
Directly on the command line, enter “format *:”, where * is the name of the desired drive (C or D). Press Enter again.
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:

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

Formatting a hard drive is a software process of applying marks to elements of the magnetic platter memory area and creating a new file structure of the media. Without labels and file system structure, a hard drive is a useless device; you cannot write information to it due to the physical and software features of the processes of recording, storing and reading information.

Physically, nothing happens to it when formatting a hard drive, but at the software level, its logical structure is organized on the media - a certain order necessary for recording, storing, editing and deleting data. Otherwise, the logical structure of the disk is called a file system. Depending on the selected file system, the speed of access to information, the maximum length of a file name, the number of files in one directory, the efficiency of the drive, search methods, recording information, etc. will differ.

Formatting a hard drive is divided into two types. These are low-level and high-level formatting.

Low-level formatting is a process by which special electronic marks called servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface of the polished platters of your HDD. They contain service information about the positioning of the read heads and the position of sectors and tracks of the disk, which determine the physical format of the drive. This procedure is performed on special factory equipment, since before this the media does not contain any information about the sectors and tracks of the plate(s), due to the absence of which, working with the media is impossible. Due to the coefficient of volumetric expansion of the materials (as many know from school physics lessons) from which HDD platters were made in the past and the stepper motors that control the positioning of the heads, sectors and tracks were displaced relative to the read heads. Thus, when, according to the controller, the head was in the desired sector, it could physically be on the adjacent track. Because of this, the hard drive malfunctioned and bad (inoperative) sectors appeared (if the controller thinks that the head is in the first sector, but in reality it is positioned, for example, above the 5th, then the first four sectors are inaccessible to it). Such hard drives required repeated low-level formatting throughout their entire service life, which required the complete and repeated destruction of all data on the hard drive platter(s).

In new HDDs, this problem was solved by using a voice coil in the read head mechanism, due to which the influence of thermal expansion was compensated by recalibrating the operating parameters of the disk heads (to put it simply, everything was solved at the software level by simple redirection).

Low-level formatting is necessary to solve several problems and is performed in such cases:

at the manufacturing facility to create the physical structure of the manufactured hard drive before testing and delivery to the end user;
on old hard drives to reset the file system (due to the coefficient of linear expansion of materials when heated during long-term operation of the HDD, the head moves slightly in relation to the formed grid of tracks and sectors);
complete, reliable and irrevocable erasure of all information stored on the hard drive, for example, before selling your own computer or the hard drive itself.

High-level HDD formatting is the process of forming the file structure of a hard drive, which consists of creating a master boot record, a file table, a file system structure and, depending on the formatting option, checking the surface of the hard drive platters for damaged sectors and then replacing or deactivating them. High-level formatting prepares the hard drive for use by the operating system to store data on it.

High-level formatting is divided into two types: quick and full. During the fast process, the file table is updated, which stores file names and paths to them, attributes, etc. After this, its new structure is formed, and a master boot record of the disk or its logical partition is created. Upon completion of the process, the operating system will recognize the hard or logical drive as clean, although physically all the information on it will remain intact, with the exception of the file table - all data in it will be marked as non-existent and will be overwritten with new bits of information during operation.

Full formatting is a procedure for clearing the file table, as during quick formatting, but with subsequent rewriting of each sector with zero bits of information. Also, during full formatting, all sectors of the hard drive will be checked for functionality. If a bad sector is detected, it will be replaced with a functional one that is in reserve, or simply excluded, as a result of which the usable volume of the HDD will slightly decrease.

High-level formatting of hard drives and their partitions must be performed in the following cases:

during reinstallation of the operating system to reset all data located on them and form a new disk structure;
when dividing the drive into logical drives;
for high-quality checking of magnetic plates for the presence of damaged sectors;
immediately after low-level formatting to form the file structure of the disk by the manufacturer or user (mandatory procedure);
deleting all information on the hard drive.

2. Formatting a non-system hard drive

Any operating system of the Windows family is located on a disk or partition thereof, which is designated as system. It contains the master boot record and Windows system files, thanks to which the software interacts with the hardware. There may be several such partitions, but, as a rule, the user has one operating system installed, which implies the presence of a single system partition. All other partitions and hard drives connected to the computer are not system drives. The second and subsequent hard drives are non-system, so the procedure for formatting them is no different from formatting removable USB drives.

Let's consider methods for forming the file structure of non-system hard drives using tools built into the operating system and using third-party software products designed to work with hard drives.

2.1. Formatting using BIOS

One way to format a hard drive is to use a bootable flash drive or CD with an installation distribution of the Windows operating system, the so-called LiveCD or bootable media with one of the programs for formatting storage media. There are versions of programs, such as AcronisDiskDirector, that can boot directly from a flash drive, which means they work without an operating system. The latest versions of Acronis have a bootable media creation wizard. Such a flash drive will allow the AcronisDiskDirector program to boot from the BIOS and format the hard drive.

In addition to third-party programs, formatting a hard drive with BIOS can be done by booting from the installation disk with the Windows distribution using the command line or the operating system installer. All these options will be discussed in more detail below.

2.2. Formatting using Windows

The Windows operating system contains all the tools necessary to format hard drives. In this section, we will consider all the methods to format a hard drive using the tools provided by the Windows operating system.

2.2.1. Through properties

The simplest way to prepare a hard drive for work, clear it of unnecessary information and form a new system is to format it through the context menu.

2.2.2. Through “Creating and formatting hard disk partitions”

The second method to format a hard drive using the Windows operating system tools is the Disk Management snap-in, located in the Computer Management system console.

“Disk Management” is a Windows system service designed to manage flash drives, hard drives and their partitions. This program allows you to format hard drives connected to your computer in one of three file systems and create new partitions on them. Almost all actions are performed without rebooting the operating system, which will not distract the user from his main work.

You can start Disk Management using one of the following methods.

Via the Start menu

Via "My Computer"

Via "Control Panel"

We have launched the Computer Management service. Next, you need to go to its subsection called “Disk Management”, which, in turn, is located in the “Storage Devices” section.

During formatting, you will not see any windows with the progress of the operation, except for the inscription “Formatting” in the “Status” line (see screenshot).

Our hard drive is formatted in the selected file system and is ready for further use. You will be notified of this by a dialog box and a system signal.

2.2.3. Command line

In addition to formatting hard drives through graphical interfaces, the operating system, since the days of console MS-DOS, allows the formation of a new file system of the hard drive with the deletion of all files and, with full formatting, checking its surface for integrity, using system commands entered into the command line console, also called the Windows command interpreter.

The command line allows the user to interact with the computer directly, without any intermediaries in the form of third-party software. It is a window for entering text commands understandable to the operating system with many parameters for direct control of the operating system or computer hardware. Naturally, using the command line, you can quickly format the hard drive. To do this, launch the system console using any of the listed methods or a more convenient method for you.

Through the Run window

Via the Start menu

Using Windows Explorer

The command line is launched by calling the file “cmd.exe” located in the “System32” folder of the system directory of the Windows operating system. To launch the command line, you can go to c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe or use the shortcut to launch the command interpreter.

Having launched the command line, we will see a black window on the screen where you can enter text commands that are understandable for the Windows operating system, starting with its first versions.

If you did not enter a label, the operating system will ask you to enter it before formatting or leave the hard drive without a name by pressing “Enter” (see screenshot).

The process of formatting a hard drive, depending on the specified parameters and storage capacity, can last from several seconds to several tens of minutes. Formatting is accompanied by the inscription: “Creating file system structures.”

At the end of the process, the console window will display the message: “Format completed” and the results of the operation will appear.

Now our hard drive is formatted using the system console and is ready for further use.

2.3 Formatting a disk using the HDD Low Level Format Tool

The HDD Low Level Format Tool utility, or HDDLLFT for short, is designed for low-level formatting of hard drives and digital storage media based on memory chips. It copes with the task perfectly even in cases where the magnetic surface of the plate is severely damaged.

Carrying out the procedure for formatting a hard drive through the utility does not require any special user knowledge.

Keep in mind that in the free version of the HDD Low Level Format Tool, the format speed is limited to 50 Mb/s, which, with significant volumes of modern hard drives, during a full format and checking the drive for bad sectors, can result in several hours of work. The second drawback of the program is the inability to specify the cluster size.

3. Formatting the system hard drive

A system hard drive is, as a rule, a high-speed (with a platter rotation speed of 10,000 rpm, although it can be with a standard 7200 rpm) hard drive on which the operating system is installed. Based on this, it will not be possible to format it using Windows. Formatting a system hard drive is carried out using a different method, the essence of which is no different from forming a new file system for a regular hard drive. The only difference is that the utility for creating a new file system will have to be launched from the installation disk or flash drive.

3.1. Formatting using a bootable USB flash drive or disk

3.1.1. Through the Windows operating system installer

One of the most common methods to format a hard drive used as a system drive is to use removable media or a CD and a Windows OS installation distribution.

We will not consider how to create bootable media; many articles have been written on this subject on the Russian-language segment of the Internet. Let's get straight to the point.

We insert the bootable flash drive into the USB socket of your computer or laptop (or the CD into its drive).
Reboot or turn on the computer.

Immediately after loading the basic I/O system and initializing it and testing the equipment, we begin to click on the quick selection key for boot media.

This key can be "F9" or "F11" (see the manual for your motherboard or laptop for instructions), and this data is also displayed during BIOS boot.

We select our media as the device to which control of the system will be transferred (in our case, it is a 4 GB USB flash drive for booting from UEFI).

When a similar black screen with an inscription appears, press any button on the keyboard.

Information will be read from the bootloader program to which the BIOS has transferred control.

Depending on the Windows build, we select the operating system installation option (with a different bootloader interface, using third-party assemblies, the essence of the process will remain the same).
Select the installation language. Naturally, it will be Russian, as will the keyboard layout, time format, etc.

In the next window, simply click “Install ->”.

We accept the terms of use of the operating system, preferably after reading them.

We stop at the second option so that we can get into the hard drive settings menu.

Click “Full installation...”.

Using the keyboard and mouse, select the required hard drive if there are several of them connected to the computer, and click “Disk Setup”.

The toolbar will change slightly.

Click on the “Format” button.

A standard window will appear warning that all files and programs on the disk will be destroyed.

Click “Ok” to confirm your intentions.

After clearing the table of contents, the hard drive will be formatted and ready to install the operating system.

This method is reasonable to use in cases where the Windows operating system cannot format the hard drive, for example, because it is used by some application or is a system partition.

3.1.2. Formatting the system hard drive via the command line by booting from the installation disk/flash drive

Another simple option to format the disk on which the operating system is located is to use the command line by booting from a disk or flash drive with installation files for the Windows operating system.

3.2. Acronis Disk Director

To launch the bootable media creation wizard, go to the “Backup and Restore” tab on the program control panel, which is designed in a ribbon style, like Microsoft Office, starting with the 2007 edition.
Click on the “Create bootable media” item.
Depending on the version of the program, a window may appear asking you to select the type of boot media. It is recommended to select a bootloader based on Windows PE. Click “Next”.

We select the necessary components on the basis of which the wizard will create a bootable USB flash drive.

To format a hard drive, the AcronisDiskDirector program is sufficient. If you want to have a tool for creating backup copies of partitions, also select AcronisTrueImage.

Select the type of Acronis bootable media to be created.
Then we confirm our intentions to write the program files to the flash drive, having first destroyed all the files on it, and wait for the end of the writing process.
We boot from the created drive.

To do this, restart the computer and select our flash drive as boot media. This is done by changing the priority in the list of boot devices (the “Boot” menu item) in your BIOS or by using the boot device selection hotkey.

In most cases, during the initialization procedure, which occurs before loading the operating system, you must press the F11, F9 or other key to bring up the boot menu. In it, select the USB drive and click “Enter”.
We are waiting for the program to load.

Typically, this procedure takes little longer than loading Acronis Disk Director in Windows.
We select our hard drive and call the formatting procedure using any method:
In the dialog box that appears, select the hard drive formatting options:
- file system – it is recommended to use NTFS, due to support for files larger than 4 GB, which is not available for FAT and FAT32;
- Leave the cluster size at “Auto” if you have no idea what this value is. However, to store a huge number of small files, it is recommended to select a cluster size of less than 4 KB;
- volume label – enter the name of the hard drive or leave the field blank.

Having set all the parameters, we turn our attention to the toolbar located at the top of the screen. Click on the button called “Apply pending operations (1)”.

After a short loading of the list of operations, a small window will appear with their detailed description and parameters.

If you are confident in the actions you are performing, check the correctness of the specified parameters and click on the “Continue” button.

After a few seconds of fixing the operation, the hard drive formatting procedure will start.

Be careful, the program will not display a warning window asking you to confirm the operation and will not notify you that all data on the hard drive has been destroyed.

Formatting will occur within a few seconds, since the utility uses a quick formatting algorithm. At the end of the procedure, the window will close automatically, and the hard drive with a cleared file table and a new file system will be ready for further use.

3.3. Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager is the most powerful free software product for working with hard drives. Naturally, you can use it to format any hard drive or partition. In addition, the utility can work with backups, change and create logical partitions, install several operating systems on a disk, and so on.

Load the LiveCD or installation distribution of the Windows operating system, which includes the Paragon Partition Manager program.
We write the image to removable media and boot from it, specifying the highest boot priority from a flash drive in the BIOS or selecting the drive with the Paragon Partition Manager distribution as the boot device.
We select our program using the mouse cursor or cursor keys and the “Enter” button, depending on the graphical menu and the bootloader used to create the LiveCD.
The main menu of the utility will appear, where we select “Partition Manager” in the list on the left, and then in its right frame.
In the next window, in the list of your hard drives, select the one you want to format.

This can be done both in the “Disk Panel” tab and in the lower frame called “Partition List”.
Call up the context menu of the magnetic drive and select the “Format” command in it, which is located in one of the first places.
Specify the file system and the new hard drive label.
Click “Advanced options” if you want to change the number of sectors in one cluster. You can also specify here whether to perform formatting using the built-in Windows “format” command, which we became familiar with when formatting a disk from the Shell, or use the developers’ own algorithm.
Click "Format".

The program will not ask for confirmation of the operation, but it will not start executing the command specified to it.

To do this, click on the “Apply intended changes” button, which is located in the toolbar under the main menu.

To view planned changes, use the magnifying glass button.
In the dialogue, we agree to make changes by clicking “Yes”.
We are waiting for a notification that the program has completed its operation.

The same is done through the main menu of the program.

4. Possible errors and ways to solve them

One of the many problems that users face when formatting a hard drive is the use of outdated software. This happens because the user has not updated the disk management program that he trusts for several years. Also, using queries like “download hacked acronis” often leads to the most popular sites, which have been at the top of search engines for many months and contain outdated versions of the software.

Make sure your hard drive software is up to date, especially if you are using one of the latest versions of Windows.

The second problem is an error when trying to format the disk being used, especially for system partitions. Also, some application can use the hard drive or its partition, even in read mode, while the user is trying to format it. The way out of this situation is to use bootable LiveCDs or media with a Windows distribution.

An error in the process of formatting a hard drive due to a huge number of damaged sectors occurs when trying to fully format a hard drive, the surface of which is replete with damaged memory cells. Run a HDD scan, for example, with the Victoria utility, with reassignment of damaged areas or their exclusion from the area used for storing information.

Many users believe that formatting is nothing more than first deleting all data from the hard drive in order to write new ones. This is true, but in fact, deleting data from the hard drive is a side effect of formatting. This procedure comes in two types: low-level and logical.

Low-level formatting of a hard drive is done at the production stage. In this case, markings are created on the “screw” necessary for the correct positioning of the heads.
Logical, executed after it is divided into partitions, which are named: drive D:\ E:\, etc. Logical formatting creates a boot sector, a file structure, and a partition table with a boot record. The entire disk space of the formatted “screw” is divided into clusters.

In addition, formatting can be normal or accelerated. In the usual case, the file structure is deleted and broken clusters are checked, which are rejected and are not used in the future for recording information.

During quick formatting, only the file table is deleted. All new data is written over old data.

Working with a hard drive using standard Windows OS tools

Many people ask how to format a hard drive using their own operating system. There is nothing simpler:

If you decide to format the hard drive partition where your operating system is located, it is impossible to do this using Windows. This operation must be done via DOS and using any LiveCD.

If you are wondering how to format a hard drive via BIOS, you should read the instructions to the end and follow all the steps described below.

Formatting a “screw” via BIOS means using a boot disk, which is launched by setting up the device in the BIOS.

Restart your PC.
Before starting the OS, enter the BIOS, select the BOOT tab, where select the required device as the boot device (depending on what media the boot disk is located on).
Save the changes and restart your PC.
After loading the disk, press the key combination Shift+F10.
After opening the command line, type format /FS:NTFS X: /q - where X is the required partition. For a Fat 32 file system, type format /FS:FAT32 X: /q - where X is the required partition.
Then press Enter and type Y as confirmation.

Now all that's left to do is wait.

Working with a hard drive when installing Windows OS

Working with the hard drive with third-party programs

There are a lot of software solutions for working with disks. The most popular program for formatting a hard drive is Acronis Disk Director Suite. It is very easy to use; it is most often present in various LiveCD builds.

Questions and answers

Several hundred people daily ask our specialists the question: how to low-level format a hard drive from a flash drive.

In fact, there are times when removing a virus requires deleting the entire boot sector. And for this there are certain software tools, such as SeaTools for DOS. When you run this program as standard, a bootable USB drive is created, from which you load and select one of three types of hard drive cleaning.

In fact, such a procedure cannot be called a completely low level, but the possibility of completely deleting data by deleting the zero track and sectors of the hard disk, as well as filling the entire disk space with zeros, is closest to the concept of low-level formatting.

How to completely format a hard drive so that the data on it cannot be recovered?

Indeed, even after reformatting, data can be restored using special software. If you need to permanently delete all information from the hard drive, for example, when reselling a PC, then use the program to completely format the hard drive Eraser HDD.

After downloading, the program is immediately ready to work and does not require additional settings. By clicking the Start button, you will see a list of sections of your “screw” under the numbers. Select the number of the partition that requires full formatting, paste it into the window and click Apply. After which you will be asked for confirmation for the last time that all information is permanently deleted. After confirmation, reboot and go through the hard drive initialization procedure.

In many of our articles that mention working with, we indirectly touch on the issue of its formatting. In this article we want to touch on this topic in detail and tell you how to format a hard drive in different situations. So let's get started.

You can format a hard drive in different ways, and this procedure is required in many cases: to completely erase a partition or the entire hard drive, for, when reinstalling the system, and also after purchasing a new HDD. First, let's look at the easiest way to format a disk - through Windows OS.

How to format a hard drive partition in Windows

Formatting a hard drive partition in Windows is done if you want to quickly and efficiently delete existing unnecessary files on one of the hard drive partitions. Also, a partition is formatted using this method if viruses appear on this partition.

Before formatting your hard drive, resave all the necessary data that is on it to another partition or to your cloud service. If you want to format a HDD partition because there are viruses on it, then in this case it is better not to copy data from it, as they may contain viruses. However, if a virus-infected hard drive contains files that you really need, then copy them to an empty flash drive and check it. If no viruses are detected, then these files can be transferred to a formatted partition.

To format a partition, right-click on it in Explorer to open the context menu.

In the context menu that appears, select “Format...”.

Capacity. This parameter indicates the size of the hard drive partition, so it does not change.

File system. In this parameter, we set the default value, that is, we format the partition in the NTFS file system, since it is the best today for the Windows operating system.

Cluster size. The value of this parameter is also left unchanged.

Volume Label. Here you can enter the name of the section that will be assigned to it after formatting.

Formatting Methods. Select “Quick (clean table of contents)” formatting by checking the box next to this value.

If you accidentally selected the wrong values, then click on the “Restore default values” button, it is located in the middle of the window. If all the settings are correct, then click on the “Start” button. After a few seconds, the partition will be formatted.

How to format a hard drive when installing a system

Now let's look at how to properly format a hard drive with and.

How to format a hard drive when installing Windows
The menu for formatting hard drives in Windows 7 and Windows 8 is absolutely identical. To do this, when during the installation process you come to selecting the Windows installation partition, click on “Disk Settings”.

If you need to format a new hard drive, then to do this, click on this drive and then click on the “Format” inscription.

There are two ways to format a hard drive. The first method (described above): select a hard drive partition and format it. Second method: delete all partitions on the hard drive and create one, thereby formatting the hard drive completely. You can read more about this in one of our next articles.

How to format a hard drive when installing Linux
The Linux Ubuntu installer also includes a hard drive setup process. If the new hard drive will be the only one in your computer, then in the installation menu you can select automatic disk setup, where it will be formatted as needed. To do this, during the installation process, select "Erase disk and install Ubuntu".

To format an existing partition on a hard drive in Linux, you need to select this partition, click on the “Change...” button at the bottom and in the window check the box next to the item: “Format partition” and click on the “OK” button, leaving its type (Ext4 or swap) without change. But it is best to format an external hard drive in Linux, as in Windows, in the NTFS file system.

How to format a hard drive using special programs
In principle, in order to format a hard drive or its partition, the above methods will be quite sufficient, but if you want to format and resize a hard drive partition in Windows and not reinstall the system, we recommend using the Acronis Disk Director or "Partition Magic"

It is very simple to format a disk or partition in these programs: select the desired disk or partition and right-click on it, after which a context menu will appear where you will need to select the “Format” or “Format” item depending on the program and its localization.

Good day.

Questions regarding the operation of the hard drive ( or as they say HDD) - always a lot (probably one of the most numerous directions). Quite often, in order to solve this or that issue, the hard drive needs to be formatted. And here, some questions are superimposed on others: “And how? With what? This program does not see the disk, which one should I replace it with?” etc.

In this article I will present the best (in my opinion) programs that help cope with this task.

Important! Before formatting the HDD with one of the presented programs, save all important information from the hard drive to other media. During the formatting process, all data from the media will be deleted and it is sometimes extremely difficult to restore something (and sometimes even impossible!).

"Tools" for working with hard drives

Acronis Disk Director

In my opinion, this is one of the best programs for working with a hard drive. Firstly, there is support for the Russian language (for many users this is fundamental), secondly, it supports all Windows operating systems: XP, 7, 8, 10, thirdly, the program has excellent compatibility and “sees” all disks (unlike from other utilities of this kind).

Judge for yourself, you can do “anything” with hard disk partitions:

format (in fact, for this reason the program was included in the article);
change the file system without data loss (for example, from Fat 32 to Ntfs);
resize partition: very convenient if, when installing Windows, you, say, allocated too little space for the system disk, and now you need to increase it from 50 GB to 100 GB. You can format the disk again - but you will lose all the information, and with the help of this function you can change the size and save all the data;
combining hard disk partitions: for example, we divided the hard drive into 3 partitions, and then thought, why? It’s better to have two: one system one for Windows, and the other for files - they took it and combined it and didn’t lose anything;
Disk Defragmenter: useful if you have a Fat 32 file system (with Ntfs - there's not much point, at least you won't gain in performance);
change drive letter;
deleting partitions;
viewing files on disk: useful when you have a file on your disk that is not deleted;
ability to create bootable media: flash drives (the tool will simply save you if Windows refuses to boot).

In general, it is probably unrealistic to describe all the functions in one article. The only drawback of the program is that it is paid, although there is time for a test...

Paragon partition manager

This program is quite well known, I think that experienced users have been familiar with it for a long time. Includes all the most necessary tools for working with media. By the way, the program supports not only real physical disks, but also virtual ones.

Main features:

Using disks larger than 2 TB in Windows XP (with this software you can use larger capacity disks in the old OS);
Ability to control boot of multiple operating systems Windows (very important when you want to install another Windows OS in addition to your first one. For example, to test a new OS before finally switching to it);
Easy and intuitive work with sections: You can easily split or merge the required partition without losing data. In this sense, the program works without any complaints at all ( By the way, it is possible to convert a basic MBR to a GPT disk. Regarding this task, there have been a lot of questions lately. );
Support for a large number of file systems- this means that you can view and work with partitions of almost any hard drive;
Working with virtual disks: easily connects a disk to itself and allows you to work with it as with a real disk;
Huge number of backup functions and restoration (also very important), etc.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition

An excellent free (by the way, there is also a paid version - it has several additional functions) tool for working with hard drives. Supported OS Windows: 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits), there is support for the Russian language.

The number of functions is simply amazing, I will list some of them:

support for different types of media: HDD, SSD, USB flash drives, memory cards, etc.;
changing hard disk partitions: formatting, resizing, merging, deleting, etc.;
support for MBR and GPT disks, support for RAID arrays;
support for disks up to 8 TB;
the ability to migrate from HDD to SSD (however, not all versions of the program support);
the ability to create bootable media, etc.

In general, a good alternative to the paid products presented above. Even the features of the free version are enough for most users.

Aomei Partition Assistant

Another worthy alternative to paid products. The standard version (and it is free) has a bunch of functions for working with hard drives, supports Windows 7, 8, 10, and has the Russian language (although it is not installed by default). By the way, according to the developers, they use special algorithms to work with “problem” disks - so there is a chance that your “invisible” disk in any software will suddenly be seen by Aomei Partition Assistant...

Key Features:

One of the lowest system requirements (among software of this type): processor with a clock frequency of 500 MHz, 400 MB of hard disk space;
Supports traditional HDD hard drives, as well as newfangled solid-state SSDs and SSHDs;
Full support for RAID arrays;
Full support for working with HDD partitions: merging, splitting, formatting, changing the file system, etc.;
Support for MBR and GPT disks up to 16 TB in size;
Supports up to 128 disks in the system;
Support for flash drives, memory cards, etc.;
Support for virtual disks (for example, from programs such as VMware, Virtual Box, etc.);
Full support for all the most popular file systems: NTFS, FAT32/FAT16/FAT12, exFAT/ReFS, Ext2/Ext3/Ext4.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is free software for working with hard drives. By the way, it’s not at all bad, which only indicates that over 16 million users use this utility in the world!

Peculiarities:

Full support for the following OS: Windows 10, Windows 8.1/7/Vista/XP 32-bit and 64-bit;
Ability to resize partitions, create new partitions, format them, clone, etc.;
Convert between MBR and GPT disks (without data loss);
Supports conversion from one file system to another: we are talking about FAT/FAT32 and NTFS (without data loss);
Backup and recovery of information on disk;
Optimizing Windows for optimal performance and migration to an SSD drive (relevant for those who are replacing their old HDD with a newfangled and fast SSD), etc.;

HDD Low Level Format Tool

This utility does not do much of what the programs listed above can do. In general, it can only do one thing - format the media (disk or flash drive). But it was impossible not to include it in this review...

The fact is that the utility performs low-level formatting of the disk. In some cases, restoring the functionality of a hard drive without this operation is almost impossible! Therefore, if no program sees your disk, try HDD Low Level Format Tool. It also helps to delete ALL information from the disk without the possibility of recovery (for example, you do not want someone to be able to restore your files on a sold computer).

In general, I have a separate article about this utility on my blog (which describes all these “subtleties”):

About 10 years ago, by the way, one program was very popular - Partition Magic (it allowed you to format the HDD, split the disk into partitions, etc.). In principle, you can still use it today - only the developers have stopped supporting it and it is not suitable for Windows XP, Vista and higher. On the one hand, it’s a pity when they stop supporting such convenient software...

That's all, good choice!