How to Format Hard Drive Using Command Prompt in Easy Steps

Formatting of a drive or partition technically cleans it up. The point at which one requires taking a step as major as formatting the drive is, when they are no longer able to work on or with the disk. This could be both an internal or external storage system. For this segment, the example taken is of an external disk, data in which went out of reach and was then cleaned up and formatted. The below blog will provide easy steps that explains how to format hard drive using command prompt.

 

Checking The Disk For Any Problem

In case, you have been facing trouble while accessing your disk then you must probably get it checked and scanned. Checking the disk will help figure out the root of the issue, which can later be dealt with via the implementation of an applicable fix.
CMD helps you do that too. You can use the CHKDSK command to see for any troubles with your disk to get them fixed. In order to check the disk, run CMD and type in ‘chkdsk /f (drive letter):’

For Instance: chkdsk /f I:

Refer the screenshot given above depicting the result of running chkdsk command on the drive letter ‘I’.
Now, if check disk detects any issue, it will implement an applicable fixture automatically in the attempt of fixing the problem.

NOTE: Before proceeding with the use of DiskPart for formatting the drive, backup the now available data on the disk.

Learn How to Format Hard Drive Using Command Prompt

 

Go to the Start Menu on your machine and type ‘cmd’. Right click on CMD and select ‘Run as Administrator’.

A window like the one shown below will appear. In this command prompt, type ‘diskpart’ and hit enter

Machine details will be listed. Now type ‘list disk’ and hit enter to get a list of disks available on the machine. Graphical illustration of the same has been provided below:

TIP: You can distinguish your drive with its size, as command prompt will list them in an incremental order, which makes it hard for users to identify their drive.

To format hard drive using command prompt, choose the disk carefully by entering the following command: ‘select disk (disk number as stated in the list)’

Once you have selected the disk, you can perform cleaning on it. Type ‘clean’ and hit enter. On the successful cleaning of your disk, CMD will notify you of the same as shown in the screenshot below:

Now type: ‘create partition primary’. This will create a partition for the disk, which will make it accessible again. On the successful creation of a primary partition, you will be notified of the same.

Now format the disk using NTFS file system. Type: ‘format fs=ntfs’ then hit enter. You can also choose FAT as per your requirement. The procedure will begin and a live status of the same will be displayed on cmd as shown below:

Once the formatting of file system is complete, a message on command prompt will appear stating:
‘100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.’

Type ‘assign’ to assign a drive letter to the formatted disk and hit enter.

Once done, you can go to My Computer and check the drive you just checked, scanned for errors, got fixed, formatted, format file system for, and assigned drive letter to; as shown below:

Conclusion: The above blog is all about how to format hard drive using command prompt. Furthermore, this is how you can format a drive and reformat its file system. However, it is important to backup any important data that is accessible to you before beginning with the disk format. This will prevent data loss in case of any failure or mistake.