Formatting a drive on it. Before you begin, ensure you have moved any important photos, documents, or games to a different physical drive or a cloud storage service like OneDrive or Google Drive. Method 1: Using File Explorer (Quickest)
A "Quick" format takes seconds but doesn't truly erase data (it just marks the space as empty). A "Full" format checks for bad sectors and makes data much harder to recover.
Under the "Reset this PC" section, click the Get started button. how to reformat a hard drive windows 10
Type cmd in the Windows search bar, right-click it, and Run as Administrator . Type Diskpart: Type diskpart and press Enter.
Click the Start button and select the Gear icon (Settings). Alternatively, press Windows Key + I . Formatting a drive on it
Before proceeding, understand that on the target drive or partition.
Use this method if the drive is your primary Windows system drive (e.g., a D: drive, E: drive, or an external USB drive). A "Full" format checks for bad sectors and
Type list disk to see your connected drives. Identify your drive number.
Right-click the rectangular block representing the drive's partition and select Format .