Nov 23, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

1. Windows Cannot Format This Drive Quit Any
2. Cannot Format Usb Drive Windows 10
3. Windows Cannot Format This Type Of Disk Encryption

It is not rare to see people coming and asking how to format their new or second hard drive on Mac or Windows either for freeing up space or for making hard drives to be compatible with a new operating system. As speaking of this, it is essential to grasp the key steps to format your new or second hard drive. Before that, we will walk you through the reasons why or when you need to format new or second hard drives. Read on to discover more!

Part 1. Do You Need to Format a New or Second Hard Drive

Capacity beyond 2 TB cannot be addressed by Windows if the disk is initialized by using the MBR partitioning scheme. For example, for a 3-TB single disk that is initialized by using MBR, Windows can create partitions up to the first 2 TB. However, the remaining capacity cannot be addressed and, therefore, cannot be used.

To begin with, do you need to format a new hard drive? The answer is positive as formatting a new hard drive is the very first step before you start to use the new hard drive, isn't it? The gesture to format a new drive means so much to users because it signifies the note that this new drive is working correctly, completely clean, and free of malware or malicious code that may potentially harm your installation and personal files. Now you see when you buy a new hard drive, you need to make sure the drive is functioning well and it is clean.

• Method 3 - Format Media when Windows Cannot Format SD/USB/Disk (Fix cannot format device in disk management) After the above operations are executed, simply complete formation on the disk using methods such as below: Format Way 1. Go to Disk Management on your computer and select the disk you want to format.
• On the disk selection screen, press SHIFT+F10. A Command Prompt window opens. Type diskpart, and then press ENTER to open the diskpart tool. Type list disk, and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed. Type sel disk number, and then press ENTER. Number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean. The hard disk is.
• Disk not formatted error is the most common error associated with external HDDs. Whenever the user plugs in the drive in a USB port, an error message pops up. This can be quite frustrating and annoying at the same time. Before you get misty-eyed, we have some good news for you to cheer you up.
• How to Erase and Format a Disk in Windows 10, 8 or 7. Read this article to learn about the difference between quick and full format, the file system you should choose when formatting a disk, how to use the Windows built-in tool to format disks, create or delete partitions.Nowadays, most hard disks come preformatted by the manufacturer and ready to use.

What about second or used hard drives? Honestly, formatting second or used hard drives will help avoid a lot of issues or compatibility problems, especially when they were previously connected to a different operating system.

In short, formatting a new or second hard drive brings evident benefits to users as listed below.

• Tidy up your drive and free up space.
• Eliminate viruses, conflicts, or else from the existing drive.
• Remove any potential malware or malicious code.
• Erase any information on the used drive so that your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive.
• Improve system performance.
• Save money.

If you are going to format a new or second hard drive, keep in mind the following tips.

• Be 100% sure to back up your data before taking any action. This is especially vital to used hard drives. Otherwise, you may need to turn to professional software to recover the data lost during formatting.
• Makes sure your PC is fully charged as formatting or partitioning will take some time to finish.

Part 2. How to Format a New or Second Hard Drive in Windows 10

Formatting a drive may vary in terms of different operating systems, like Windows and Mac. Although in principle, formatting means to erase existing data and free up space for utilization, the procedures are not the same for Mac and Windows.

In specific, if you want to know how to format a new or second hard drive in Windows 10, don't miss the step-by-step instruction here.

Check your hard drive and categorize it as partitioned or non-partitioned beforehand. For a drive that has been configured with a partition, simply go through the formatting steps here to make a fresh drive.

Step 1: Open Disk Management

Type in disk management from the quick search box or directly move to the administrative tools to locate the disk management. Launch Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click to format the drive

Now that you've found the drive you want to format, right-click it and choose Format to open the disk-formatting wizard.

Tips: Before you format the hard drive, you may click and open the drive to make sure this is exactly the drive you want to erase data and make a fresh drive.

Heads-up here! When you fail to locate the drive to format, or you see that an Initialize Disk window appears, it probably means that the hard drive is new and it's never been partitioned yet. In this case, you have to partition the drive beforehand as partitioning is something that must be done before a hard drive is formatted. Let me walk you through a brief procedure to partition your hard drive.

Step 1: Open Disk Management

Use the command line to enter the disk management interface, where you will see a pop-up window indicating 'You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.'

Step 2: Choose a style

Besides, choose a partition style based on the hard drive size. If it is larger than 2TB, choose GPT, otherwise choose MBR. Click OK to proceed.

Step 3: Locate the drive to partition and select a space for the partitioning

From the Disk Management window, tap the hard drive to partition and right-click to choose New Simple Volume.

Windows Cannot Format This Drive Quit Any

Step 4: Proceed to the partitioning wizard

On the pop-up windows, click Next to proceed according to the partitioning wizard. You will see a window asking you to verify the partition choices from Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard screen. Once you have verified all the choices, click Finish to complete the partitioning.

This is the end of your partitioning a hard drive before you take steps to format the hard drive. Note that in Windows 10, these procedures are easy to follow just like the other Windows systems with only minor differences in terms of the user interface.

Part 3. How to Format a New or Second Hard Drive on Mac

Mac is a very much different operating system from Windows, let alone their features and steps to format a hard drive. Therefore, it is necessary to present a tutorial guide here to format or partition a hard drive within Mac OS.

Step 1: Launch Disk Utility from the launch pad on Mac or find disk utility from Finder

Open your Finder and enter 'disk utility' on the quick-search bar to locate the Disk Utility icon. Or start launchpad and find the disk utility from the launchpad.

Step 2: Locate the drive from the Disk Utility window

Click on the target hard drive from the sidebar on the left and you will see the details of this drive on the right pane, such as disk image volume, and a few buttons on top of the window.

Step 3: Erase the data on the drive

Tap on the Erase button from the function tab on the top of the window.

Cannot Format Usb Drive Windows 10

Step 4: Choose Mac OS extended for the volume format menu

On the displayed window, choose Mac OS extended for the volume format menu and you may name the hard drive on the Name box. Then, click the Erase button below to kick off the process, which will take a few minutes only.

Similar to formatting a hard drive, if you want to partition your hard drive due to various reasons, such as creating two OS within one box or saving space for data backup, you may follow steps here to partition the hard drive. The steps to partition a hard drive resemble those of formatting a hard drive except the part of erasing data. In terms of partitioning a hard drive, when you navigate to the drive window, check for the volume information of the hard drive in advance.

Next, tap on the Partition button on the top of the window, where a window will pop up to let you specify the number of partitions, the volume of each partition, and the name of these partitions. When all these settings are done, click Apply to move on to partition the hard drive eventually.

Tips: It is never too late to emphasize the importance of backing up your data before you format or partition your hard drive. You cannot be too cautious during data backup. We all don't want to see or hear any data loss. That is sad, isn't it? What if that happens? Can we have a remedy solution to get the data back? Absolutely yes.

Recoverit Mac Data Recovery is the very tool to help you get back your data that has been lost accidentally or the data you forget to backup beforehand. With it, you may relax a little bit because it will help you recover your data completely, no matter for a crashed drive or accidental deletion of data.

To do so, you may follow the tutorial guide here.

Step 1: Locate the target drive

Launch Recoverit on your PC and locate the drive to scan. Note that once you open Recoverit, it will automatically display all available drives and you just need to select the target drive to recover data. Click the Start button at the bottom to proceed.

Step 2: Scan the file location

On the left pane, there will be two categories, namely file type, and file path, both of which are created to help users with tracking down to specific files to recover. As soon as the scan ends, there will be a preview of your lost files on the right pane.

Step 3: Preview and recover formatted data

Select the target files by ticking the checkboxes in front of the file name on the left pane and click Recover at the bottom to kick off the process. It is recommended that you save the recovered data files to a new drive once the whole process completes.

Closing Words

Formatting a new or second hard drive as usual. The routine procedure may differ a little bit for different operating systems, such as Windows and Mac OS. However, it is essential to follow two major steps for any systems, data backup, format/partition, respectively. That being said, you need to bear in mind that no matter for formatting or partitioning a hard drive, data backup is a must.

The last but certainly not the least, if you lose the data by accident, you may turn to free data recovery software - Recoverit for help. It will surely do the best to recover your deleted or lost files from your PC, hard drive, USB drive, SD card, mobile phone, as well as other removable devices on Windows and Mac.

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Dec 03, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Disk formatting is done as a preparation for the use of any operating system. It’s a common process done by many PC users. There are many ways you can do this task so if one method fails, you can opt to use another. In this article, we’ll show you how to format Drive C using your Windows computer.

Why Do You Need To Format C Drive?

The formatting of drive usually uses three processes. This includes low-level and high-level formatting and partitioning. If you’re wondering why you even need to perform a format of Drive C, we’ll explain it. Typically a drive format is done, in a way, to refresh the drive. This deletes all the data in the hard drive (but not completely, you’ll find out why in the solutions below).

How to Format C Drive in Windows 10

Windows Cannot Format This Type Of Disk Encryption

As promised, here are 5 ways you can Format C Drive in Windows 10.

Solution 1 - Use Windows Setup or External Storage Media to Format C

This method is the most convenient way to perform the format of Drive C. This doesn’t require any new install of Windows so you won’t need any Windows copy. Take note that the installation of Windows will automatically format your drive. In this case, you don’t need to format Drive C anymore before installation. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to perform this.

1. Boot using the Windows Setup Disc. Just place the CD in the optical hard drive and just follow the instructions.
2. Once the Windows installs, you will see the screen. Select the language you want to use and select Next.
3. Click Install Now and wait until it finishes. This process isn’t installing the Windows OS (you already have it installed).
4. Accept the terms and conditions and select Next.
5. Go to the Custom (advanced) option.
6. Now, a prompt will ask you the location for the Windows installation. You will see a list of all the existing drives. Click on Drive options (advanced).
7. Select Format among the options.
8. Now, Windows will start the process of formatting your drive.

Solution 2 - Use System Repair Disc to Format C

Making System Repair Disc is one of your best options to format Drive C. It’s an excellent way if you don’t own any installation media of your OS but have a copy of Windows 7, 8, or 10. You can create your disc and use it to boot then format drive C. Follow the instructions on how you can do this:

1. Firstly, you have created a System Repair Disc. Do this by following these steps:

   a. Press the Start button then go to All Programs. Select Maintenance

   b.Select Create a System Repair Disc and pick the location where you want to burn this. Place the CD in the optical drive before doing this or during this step.

   c.Just follow the instructions in the process to continue.

2. After making the disc, use it to boot. Just insert the disc in the optical drive and restart your PC. You will be shown a prompt telling you to press any key so you can boot from the CD.
3. Wait for the installation to complete. Choose your preferred language and continue.
4. You will be redirected to System Recovery. Select Use recovery tools… option and proceed.

5. Go to Command Prompt. Enter the following command:

   format c: /fs:NTFS

   NOTE: In this command, we’re formatting the drive to NTFS. You can choose a different format type.

6. You will be asked to provide the volume level. Enter the label.
7. Proceed to the format by typing in Y and hit Enter.
8. Once the format is finished, enter in the Volume Label.

Solution 3 - Use Recovery Console

Recovery Console is a built-in feature in most Windows OS that allows users to fix system issues. It makes use of commands to solve the errors. You can use this using the Windows XP Setup CD and are also using Windows XP or at least have it installed on your PC. This may be the most ideal method if you’re not running the newer editions of Windows.

Solution 4 - Use a Diagnostic and Repair Utility

There are plenty of diagnostic and repair utilities you can make use of. These are usually made by PC users and other companies. You may use this step if you can’t get hold of new versions of Windows to make your repair discs.

Solution 5 - Use a Data Destruction Program to Delete the Drive’s Data

Simply select all your files in a drive and permanently deleting them might not work. Using a data destruction program ensures you’re wiping your drive of all the data it contains. This leaves you with a good-as-new drive. It may also be seen as a factory reset.

Formatting any of your PC’s drives shouldn’t be too tedious. It’s an essential process you will do if you own a PC. With all of the solutions above, you’ll surely find an effective method to format Drive C.

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