Many external hard drives come pre-formatted as FAT 32. This is a native Windows file format that can be read by Mac OS X, but is not ideal for use with Aperture. Before you begin to use your new external hard drive with Aperture, reformat it to the Mac OS Extended file system: Be sure your drive is attached and mounted. How do I format Mac hard drive before using?' Formatting Mac hard drive is straight forward you are selling your Mac computer and formatting Mac startup disk drive to make it clean and new without any Reformat Mac hard drive for Windows PC as they use different file systems that won't be.
Advertisement If you’re reading this, it’s because you have a new HDD (hard disk drive) or SSD (solid state drive). Maybe it’s Tired of software you never wanted consuming your laptop's resources? Your computer isn't free ad space. Here's how to get rid of bloatware. And you want to wipe it clean and start from scratch. Or you bought a used drive from someone and you don’t trust that they’ve cleared it properly.
Or maybe the drive was formatted for another operating system like Mac or Linux, in which case it may be unusable on Windows or at the very least could cause compatibility issues. Whatever the case, you should always format a Thinking about buying a data drive for storing file backups? Here's what you need to know if you want to make an informed decision.
Because you never know what a previous owner has hidden on it — not just bloatware, but malware, viruses, keyloggers, and other scary things. Keep reading for step-by-step instructions on how to do this. If you haven’t installed the drive yet, check out our A solid state hard drive is one of the best upgrades available for a modern computer. It increases the load times of programs dramatically, which in turn makes a PC feel snappier. Results can be.
The article focuses on SSDs, but the gist is the same for HDDs. This post assumes the drive is already installed.
Formatting HDDs and SSDs in Windows Formatting a data drive means wiping it clean and resetting the drive’s internal file system to use a particular format: FAT32, NTFS, EXT4, etc. Given a particular file, the format determines how exactly individual bits should be stored on the drive. Windows 10 makes it very easy to format drives, so it’s not the process that’s difficult.
The hard part is finding the confidence to follow the instructions and do it yourself — and even that’s not very difficult. Never done this before?
You’ll be fine. Launch Disk Management Most users do this by opening the Start Menu and searching for “Disk Management”, which brings up a Control Panel option titled Create and format hard disk partitions. Click it to launch Disk Management. But there’s a faster way: in Windows 8.1 or 10 press Windows key + X to With all its nooks and crannies, not even the most die-hard Windows fans have explored all its complex features. We have compiled those hidden Windows tips and tricks we think anyone will appreciate., then click Disk Management. There are other ways too, but they’re unnecessary when you can just do this. Partition the Data Drive (optional) You can segment a physical data drive into multiple individual parts, called partitions.
This lets you take a 500 GB drive and split it into, say, one 300 GB partition and one 200 GB partition. Windows will then recognize it as two separate drives (C: and D:, for example). You can also take multiple partitions and combine them.
Most modern drives are already prepared as one partition by the manufacturer so this step isn’t necessary to continue, but you should consider splitting your drive for better organization. Or if the drive is used, you should re-partition it to your liking. Check out our In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, resizing your volumes or re-partitioning your hard drive has become a lot easier than in previous Windows versions.
However, there are still a few pitfalls that will require you. For detailed instructions on how to do that. Format the Right Drive View the list of volumes at the top and find the drive that you want to format. Note that even though I said drive, Disk Management actually formats individual partitions. Remember that Windows views each partition as a separate drive, so you can indeed format them separately. To format, right-click on the drive and select Format.
Be absolutely sure that this is the drive you want! Formatting the wrong drive could have disastrous consequences, ranging from lost personal data to an inoperable system. Pro Tip: New, unformatted drives will appear as RAW under the File System column whereas prepared drives will be either FAT32 or NTFS. Linux drives are usually EXT4. Note that you cannot format the Windows system drive (usually the C: drive but not always).
It requires more complicated methods to format the Windows drive, and that’s beyond the scope of this article. Select the Right Settings The Volume Label is the name of the drive. This is what appears in File Explorer when you’re browsing This PC. You can name it whatever you want, as long as you use letters and numbers only.
For File System, you’ll want to choose NTFS. It’s the Different hard drives and operating systems may use different file systems. Here's what that means and what you need to know. Used by Microsoft as of this writing, and most modern data drives are optimized for this file system, especially SSDs. If you cannot use NTFS for whatever reason, FAT32 is fine (unless you need support for file sizes greater than 4 GB, in which case you should use exFAT). Don’t worry about Allocation Unit Size and just leave it on Default.
We recommend unchecking Perform a quick format. When it’s enabled, the drive is assumed to be error-free and all of its contents are only marked as deleted. Running a standard format will actually go through and overwrite the entire drive with zeroes.
The downside is that it takes a lot longer whereas a quick format is almost instantaneous. We also recommend unchecking Enable file and folder compression because it can negatively impact your day-to-day drive performance. This feature was more useful back when drive space was limited, but now you can. Format and Finish Click OK and you’ll see a warning about losing data. Before you continue, double-check that the drive has nothing important on it — and if it does, make sure you We never tire to remind you to make backups and keep your data safe.
If you're wondering what, how often, and where you should back up your files, we have straight forward answers. Click OK again and your drive will show as “Formatting” under the Status column in Disk Management. Wait until it finishes — it could take several minutes or hours if you chose to standard format. Once it’s done, you’re done! Other Data Drive Tips Everything has a lifespan and data drives are no exception. HDDs and SSDs both wear out over time, the only question is How long will hard drives, SSDs, flash drives continue to work, and how long will they store your data if you use them for archiving? So be sure to learn the Since a majority of people today own laptops and external hard drives, which get dragged around quite a bit, a realistic hard drive lifetime is probably around 3 - 5 years.
This is an extremely. And the Worried that your SSD will malfunction and break down and take all of your data with it?
These are the warning signs to look out for. Get started on the right foot with your new data drive by Sometimes an early death is the fault of the manufacturer, but more often than not, hard drives fail earlier than they should because we don't take care of them.
Is your new drive a HDD or SSD? Who is your favorite drive manufacturer?
And how often do you intend to format it? Share with us in the comments below!
Originally written by Sharninder on February 24, 2009. Explore more about:,.