There may be a situation where you need to format a portable hard drive. Perhaps you need to change the legacy FAT32 file system to the more modern NTFS. Or you just need to completely wipe your hard drive of all files. In this case, formatting will be much more reliable compared to normal file deletion, since after it all information from the hard disk is deleted. Also, formatting will destroy all viruses and malware.
Necessary
- - Computer running Windows operating system;
- - Portable Hard Drive;
- - P USB Disk Storage Format Tool utility
Instructions
Step 1
Connect your portable hard drive to your computer. Wait for it to be detected by the operating system. After a dialog box appears stating that the device is connected and ready to work, go to "My Computer". Then click on the icon of the external hard drive with the right mouse button and in the context menu that appears, select the "Format" command. In the window that appears, select the file system in which to format the hard drive. After that, at the bottom of the window, click "Start". The process of formatting the external hard drive will begin. After its completion, a message will appear stating that the hard drive has been successfully formatted.
Step 2
If the purpose of your formatting is to change the file system, and the standard formatting method is not always possible for portable hard drives, or this process can be very lengthy, you can use a special utility. Download the P USB Disk Storage Format Tool from the Internet. This is a completely free application less than one megabyte in size. The program does not require installation.
Step 3
Connect an external hard drive. Next, run the program. On the top line of Devise select your removable hard drive, and on the line below the file system. There are also two formatting methods available. The quick method formats the hard drive in a few seconds, leaving a high chance of file recovery. The second formatting method is more time-consuming, but the probability of recovering files is low. Even if the files can be recovered, most likely they will be damaged and will not open.
Step 4
Depending on the situation, choose a quick or thorough formatting method, and then click Start. You will be notified of the completion of the formatting process in the program window.
