This should allow the SSD to show up in the left column, if it does not show up quit Disk Utility and reopen it. A) If the SSD does show up you may want to select the drive and click on the Erase tab. You can then name the drive and chose the desired format (APFS is the best choice) and partition scheme (GUID is the best choice). Windows has gone a long way since the days of Windows XP and Windows 7, and Microsoft has done a lot of work under the hood to ensure that SSDs operate at their best performance.

Best Partitioning Configuration For Formatting External Ssd For Os X 10
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Best Partitioning Configuration For Formatting External Ssd For Os X Windows 10
Best Partitioning Configuration For Formatting External Ssd For Os X Windows 10

Summary :

What is disk formatting? When do you need to format a hard drive? How to format a hard drive with ease? How to format a hard drive for Mac? What can you do when mistakenly formatting a hard drive? This post shows you the answers.

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Formatting Hard Drive

Hard drives, which are the primary storage devices on our computer, need to be formatted before we can use them. Here, before formatting hard drive, you might be wondering: what is drive formatting? And, when do we need to format a drive? How to format a hard drive?

Now, here are answers to some common questions about formatting drives.

What Is Drive Formatting?

Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems.

The first part of the formatting process that performs basic medium preparation is often referred to as 'low-level formatting'. Partitioning is the common term for the second part of the process, making the data storage device visible to an operating system.

The third part of the process, usually termed 'high-level formatting' most often refers to the process of generating a new file system. In some operating systems all or parts of these three processes can be combined or repeated at different levels and the term 'format' is understood to mean an operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files.

When Do You Need to Format Hard Drive?

As we know, there are many reasons why we need to format a hard drive. For instance, when installing a new hard drive on the computer, we need to format it with a file system, such as NTFS, before Windows can store files on it. Besides, if we are going to give the drive to someone else or throw it away, we need to format it to erase all the information on it.

What Files System Should You Use?

In fact, a file system is used to control how data is stored and retrieved, and there are various file systems including NTFS, FAT, HFS+, and more. However, different operating systems use different file systems to store and manage data. So well, which one is the most suitable for us?

NTFS (New Technology File System), is the default file system of Windows. In general, it is more powerful than FAT or FAT32. FAT32 is an older Windows file system, and it can only save a file within 4 GB. As a matter of fact, in most cases, the best choice for a hard drive is NTFS.

When the error “File is too large for destination file system” emerges, converting the current file system like FAT32 to NTFS is undoubtedly the right choice.

However, if you are running a computer with Mac OS X, you had better use OS X's default file system HFS+.

Is Reformatting a Hard Drive Different than Formatting a Hard Drive?

In general, there is no real difference between reformatting a drive and formatting a drive. Both ways will delete all data on the hard drive. When we reformat a hard drive, we are essentially formatting a drive that has previously been formatted.

And now, it is time for you how to format a hard drive with ease in Windows 10/8/7. We will introduce the ways to format disk in detailed.

4 Ways to Format a Hard Drive

Format a hard drive via Disk Management.
Format a hard drive via Windows Explorer.
Format a hard drive via Diskpart.
Format a hard drive via MiniTool Partition Wizard.

How to Format a Hard Drive with Ease?

In general, when it comes to formatting a hard drive in Windows, there are several ways to complete this task. To be specific, we can turn to Disk Management, DiskPart, third-party tool, and others.

Warning: Formatting erases all data on the drive! Therefore, if you want to format a drive which contains some important files, you had better back up them in advance. Although files can be recovered in some situations, prevention is always better than cure.

Solution 1. Format a Hard Drive with Windows Built-in Disk Management Tool

Now, we will show you how to format a hard drive with the Windows built-in Disk Management tool.

Press Windows Key and R key together to launch Run dialog, and type diskmgmt. msc in the box and hit Enter or click OK to enter Disk Management window.

Scenario one: If the drive is not initialized (a brand-new drive), you need to initialize it. Right-click the drive and then choose Initialize Disk. Then, you will be given detailed operating prompts. Just do as told.

Note: If our disk is 2TB or more in size, select GPT; otherwise, stick with MBR. For more information about the two kinds of disks, please see What’s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive.

Scenario two: If the drive contains several volumes, we can format volume to delete some useless data. Right-click the target volume and then click Format… Then, you can complete this formatting according to detailed prompts.

Solution 2. Format Drive via Windows Explorer

We will introduce the second method to format hard drive Windows 10 and you can refer to the following instructions.

Step 1: Open Windows Explorer, you will see all drives (including external hard drive, USB hard drive, and more) in a computer. Now, you need to right-click the drive and choose Format… to get its operating window.

Note: This method doesn't suitable for a new hard drive. Since when you install a new hard drive to a computer, it doesn't appear in Windows Explorer and you need to initialize it at first in Disk Management.

Step 2: You can specify the File system and Allocation unit size, then click Start to continue.

Solution 3. Format Drive via DiskPart

Now, we will introduce the third method to format disk via Diskpart. Diskpart is widely used in Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10, but it doesn’t support Windows XP.

Step 1: Type cmd in the search box of Windows 10 and right-click Command Prompt to choose Run as administrator to continue.

Step 2: Type the following commands and hit Enter after each command to continue.

diskpart > list disk > select volume E > format fs=ntfs quick label=test

Tip: You can replace the E with other drive letters and change the label as you like.

Step 4: Then you can exit the command line window.

Solution 4. Format Hard Drive Using Third-Party Tool

To format a hard drive, you can take advantage of a piece of third-party software. Thus, the professional partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommend

Best Partitionaing Configuration For Formatting External Ssd For Os X