• Formatting a hard drive from bios. Formatting a hard drive via BIOS. Formatting using special programs

    In today's article we will tell you several ways to format a hard drive, as well as why it is needed. Every user at some point is faced with the need to reinstall their operating system. This may occur due to the replacement of auxiliary equipment, problems caused by uncorrectable system errors, purchasing and installing a new disk, or the presence of an unremovable virus in Windows.

    In any of these cases, you will need to format the device drive. At the same time, although many experts say that this can be done directly during installation, this method is not always relevant. Therefore, we will now show you how to format a hard drive via BIOS and using a spare flash drive.

    In the past, many users used a bootable CD as a backup tool to reinstall the operating system. However, in some modern models of computers and laptops, the drives for these devices have already disappeared. Accordingly, this option has lost its relevance, and we will focus on using only flash-drive. So, for a bootable flash drive we need the following:

    1. A flash drive with a capacity of about 4 or even 8 GB.
    2. ISO image for downloading from the required Windows OS.
    3. A special utility called Rufus that will help you quickly create the desired image on your device.

    As you can see, for our version you will not need many tools.

    The process of recording a bootable USB flash drive image

    In order to create an image on a flash drive, you will need to perform a number of steps:

    • start by launching the Rufus program and connect your flash drive to any of the USB ports;
    • then in the program select your flash drive and set the partition layout (usually MBR);
    • then determine the future file system (we recommend NTFS);
    • then specify the ISO image from Windows;
    • and the last step is to click on “Start”.

    If everything was done correctly, then in 10 minutes or even less, your bootable flash drive will receive a ready-made image.

    How to format a hard drive via BIOS

    In order for the computer to boot, it must first see the flash drive. And for this to happen, you will need to configure the BIOS correctly. And although all the commands there are written in English, setting it up should not cause any problems. It's all pretty simple:

    1. To complete the setup, you will first need to go into the BIOS. The login buttons will depend on the manufacturer of your computer or laptop. Usually F2 or DEL is used for this. Sometimes the name of the button can be seen directly on the display during boot.
    2. Next, you will need to look for the “Boot” or “Advanced” function and disable “Secure Boot” if you plan to perform any actions with the flash drive.
    3. Then you will need to make all the settings for boot priority, there you will need to install the USB Strorage Device first.
    4. The last step is to press F10, which will save the new settings and restart the computer.

    Important! Considering that there are several different versions of the BIOS, it is impossible to create any one, completely universal recipe for configuring it.

    However, for most modern computers, the instructions described in our article - How to format a hard drive via BIOS - are quite suitable.

    How to format a hard drive in Windows 7: video

    How to format your hard drive using Windows Installer

    If the bootable USB flash drive was written without errors and your computer’s BIOS is configured correctly, then immediately after the reboot a new Windows welcome window should appear on the screen. After this, simply click on “Next”, and then select from the list the option that allows you to completely install the OS. Now you can begin the process of formatting the disk. There is nothing complicated here. You now have an unformatted disk without a single partition. Click on the “Create” icon and calmly continue the installation. And if you don’t know how to format your hard drive after booting, then immediately select the required partition and click on “Format”.

    If your computer has a large-capacity hard drive, the size of which, for example, is about 500 GB or more, then we would recommend making at least two partitions (we wrote about this earlier). The first one can be used directly in Windows, and the rest can be used for various folders or documents. This approach will allow you to avoid big problems in the future if your computer ever becomes infected with a dangerous virus. Then it will be enough to simply reinstall Windows, leaving all parks and documents unchanged.

    If working with the disk using the Windows installer was successful, then you will not need anything else, but if nothing works, then below you can see how to format a hard drive using the special Aomei Partition program.

    Using Aomei Partition Assistant

    This utility is designed to work together with various drives. The program is distributed free of charge and is an analogue of programs such as Acronis Disk Director and Partition Magic. With its help, you can format hard drives, as well as create new partitions on them and delete old ones. The whole process takes very little time and takes place together with the creation of a new bootable USB flash drive. To launch it we perform the following steps:

    1. We connect the flash drive to any USB port and turn on the program.
    2. Then click on the “Master” section and indicate there the designation for the new disk based on the flash drive.
    3. After a few minutes, the wizard is completed and the flash drive is completely ready to format your hard drive
    4. To do this, right-click on the required disk and in the new menu click on “format”.

    Important! This operation will destroy all existing information on the disk!

    4 ways to format a hard drive: video


    As we can see, there are several different options to solve this problem. This can be done using a ready-made bootable flash drive or creating one yourself. In addition, we talked about how to format a hard drive through BIOS using the Windows boot loader. So you have a good choice of which of the methods shown is better to use.

    A large number of people face the task of formatting a hard drive through BIOS every day. It is worth noting that it is impossible to format a hard drive using BIOS alone. Therefore, most often, users have in mind the possibility of formatting the hard drive before installing or restoring the operating system.

    When the OS is running, it is impossible to completely clean the system partition (most often drive C). An error message will be displayed to you. Therefore, we will discuss in detail the process of formatting a hard drive without starting the OS using your computer's BIOS. There are several main formatting methods via BIOS, we will look at each of them.


    To format, you will need a special bootable flash drive or boot disk with a recorded operating system. A disk with a licensed Windows OS is ideal as a boot disk. It is also possible to use a self-created disk with a recorded OS.

    First, restart your computer. After starting, you need to press the combination on the keyboard to enter the BIOS (most often it is DEL, F12, F8, Ctrl+F2, Esc - you can read more in this article). The main BIOS window will appear in front of you, in which you need to use the keyboard to click on the " tab Boot".

    Now select your drive (if using a boot disk) or USB port (if using a bootable flash drive) as the main boot device.

    After that, press F10 to exit the BIOS, while saving the changes about boot device priority, and press “OK”. Your computer will reboot and a message about booting from the drive (or flash drive) will appear on the monitor display; to get started, just press any key.

    When the language selection screen appears, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+F10 to access the command line. If you use a disk with Windows 8, then you need to open the command line differently by following the steps: " select language" - "diagnostics" - "additional features" - "command line".


    When starting a computer from a boot disk or flash drive, the drive letters may not match those you are used to. Formatting a hard drive through the BIOS will completely delete all data, so you need to be careful when choosing a drive. To determine the real letter designation of the hard drive in the command line, you must enter the command wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, size, description.

    To format the selected disk, write the command on the command line (instead of X is the designation of your disk):

    • format /FS:NTFS X: /q – fast format in the NTFS system
    • format /FS:FAT32 X: /q – fast format in FAT32

    Press "Enter" and wait for formatting to complete.

    Formatting via Windows Installer GUI

    The second way to format a hard drive through the BIOS is using the Windows Installer. To do this, after selecting the language, click “Next”.

    After that, select "Full installation".

    Select the hard drive that needs to be formatted and click “Configure”.

    To format the disk, select "Format".

    Formatting via ERD Commander

    There is another effective way to quickly format a hard drive without loading the OS. To do this, you need to download the ERD Commander program and create a boot disk based on it. In the BIOS, select the disk drive as the main boot device (you already know how to do this). When the program starts, go to the "MicroSoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset" section. In all the requests that appear, click “Next” until a working window appears, in which we select the “Disk Cleanup” item and format the hard drive.

    Thus, we have looked at all the main ways to format a hard drive through the BIOS. If there are boot disks with other operating systems, the names of the items may change slightly, but the logic of the procedures will not change.



    This article will discuss hard formatting in various systems. We will get acquainted with the concept of formatting, why is it even needed, and in what ways can this be achieved? Well, friends, let's get started. Let it be known to you that formatting a disk is a useful and necessary thing. Essentially, this is a process in which the hard drive is divided into logical drives for storing data. During such actions, information takes up a certain place on disk sectors. And after formatting, programs that request access to this or that information from the hard drive receive an exact answer about its location. This process is also actively used if it is necessary to change the file system to FAT32, NTFS, or exFAT. Advanced users know exactly how to properly format a hard drive, because this operation helps to reinstall an existing system, or install a completely new one, as well as destroy viruses that are deeply embedded in the hard drive. So, let's talk about the ways in which hard drives are formatted in the Windows operating system.

    How to format a disk with Windows 7?

    There are several methods used for formatting. Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a closer look at the main ones.

    The easiest way to format a hard drive is using operating system tools. To apply this method, follow the following algorithm:

    • Open “Computer” located on the desktop;
    • On the disk that you plan to format, right-click and select “Format...”;
    • Next, a window opens, in which you should select the necessary parameters and click on the “Start” button. If you don’t know which parameters are best for you to set, then leave everything as it is, that is, by default.

    There is another simple formatting method using administration. So, repeat everything in this sequence:

    • Open the “Control Panel” by first clicking “Start”;
    • Next, go to the “System and Security” item, select “Administration”;
    • Double-click to open “Computer Management”;
    • On the left side of the window that opens, find “Disk Management”;
    • Well, then, on the disk selected for formatting, right-click on “Format...”;
    • In the window that opens, with formatting settings, you can choose the parameters yourself, or you can leave them as default.
    • Next, click on the “Start” button.

    How to format a hard drive via BIOS?

    To format your hard drive using this method, you will need the help of third-party programs. Today there are a lot of similar programs, but we will look at a program that is considered one of the best and which is very easy to work with, this program is called Acronis Disk Director.

    Before you start formatting your hard drive using BIOS, you need to have a boot disk or flash drive with Acronis Disk Director.


    How to format a hard drive via the command line?

    So, let's get straight to action:

    How to format it correctly?

    Before we begin describing how to format an SSD, let's tell you a little about what an SSD is. This is a solid-state storage device that does not have mechanical elements, the operation of which is based on the functioning of microcircuits.

    Now let's look at how such media is formatted if the SSD is an external drive:

    • First of all, click “Start” and go to the “All Programs” section, in which we select the “Accessories” folder, and then “Run”;
    • In this window, enter the command compmgmt.msc and click “OK”;
    • The “Computer Management” window will appear, on the left side select “Disk Management”, a pop-up window will appear asking you to identify the SSD disk;
    • Next, select MBR (Master Boot Record) and click “OK”;
    • Right-click on the capacity and select “Create a new volume”;
    • “Wizard Assistant” will appear, follow “Next”;
    • Leave the “Specify Volume Size” option unchanged (maximum) and click “Continue”;
    • Select the drive letter and click “Next”;
    • A window appears where in the line “Format partitions” we write the name of the disk and click “Next”.

    How to format a disk with Windows 10?

    There are several ways to format a hard drive running Windows 10. In principle, this procedure is similar to formatting with Windows 7 installed. Let's take a quick look at how to do this in version 10.

    So, the easiest way is using “My Computer”:

    • Open “Computer” and right-click on “Format...”;
    • In the window that opens, select the necessary parameters or leave them by default and start the process by clicking on the “Start” button.

    Let's look at the second method, using the Windows Disk Management tool:

    • Click “Start”, open “Control Panel”, go to “System and Security”, select “Administration”, and then “Computer Management”;
    • On the left side of the window we find “Disk Management”;
    • Right-click on the drive you want to format and select “Format...”;
    • Select parameters and start formatting.

    Another way using the command line:

    • We follow this path: “Start”, select “All Programs”, open the “Accessories” folder, and, finally, “Run”;
    • In the line we write cmd and press “Enter”;
    • On the command line we write format and the letter of the drive that we will format, for example format e:

    Well, you can also format the hard drive using BIOS, we talked about this above.

    Formatting is the process by which the media is marked up, that is, a file system is created. For the user, this usually means that the information that was previously contained on the media is completely deleted. In this article we will look at how to format a hard drive through BIOS.

    Suppose you have a hard drive connected to your computer that needs to be formatted, and formatting must be done through the BIOS, for example, if the computer does not have an operating system installed.
    If we talk about formatting, then as such this procedure cannot be performed only through the BIOS, since this menu does not provide the ability to erase connected disks. However, if you use special utilities that can be launched through the BIOS, then the task becomes feasible.

    Formatting a hard drive via BIOS

    Below we will look at two methods available to each user that will allow you to format a hard drive through the BIOS. Each of the methods will use additional tools in its work (nowhere without them), and you just have to choose the most suitable one.

    Method 1: Format the hard drive through the Windows setup menu

    This method is the most common, since today many users have a boot disk or flash drive with a distribution kit of any Windows.

    As you may have already figured out, you will need a bootable device that contains the Windows Installer. In this case, we will not install Windows, but will launch the installation program through the BIOS, in which the formatting process will begin.

    The caveat is that using Windows Installer you can perform extremely quick formatting - no additional settings are provided here. In addition, the size of the Windows installer is significantly larger than the utility in the second method.

    1. First of all, you will need a boot disk or flash drive. If you have neither one nor the other, the most convenient thing is to burn a bootable USB flash drive with the distribution kit. For example, on the official Microsoft website at the link below there is a special utility that will download the Windows distribution kit to your computer, and then allow you to easily and quickly write it to a flash drive, thereby making the flash drive bootable.

    2. Once you have the boot device in hand, you need to connect it to the computer on which the hard drive will be formatted, and then enter the BIOS. As a rule, for most computers, entering the BIOS is accomplished by quickly pressing a special hotkey at the very early stage - this is most often F2, Del or F1.

    3. Once you get into the BIOS, you will need to find the “Boot MENU”, in which you can set the boot device that will start first. In different BIOS versions, this item may be located differently and have a slightly different name variation, but the essence is the same. In our case, the item we need is in the menu "Advanced BIOS Features" - "First Boot Device", where you need to set the name of the flash drive as the first boot device (if the name of the flash drive is not displayed, select USB-HDD) or CDROM (if you are using a Windows disk).

    4. When the necessary settings are set, all you have to do is exit the BIOS, after which the computer will begin to reboot, and as a result, the Windows installation menu will be displayed on the screen.

    5. Having selected a language, a window will appear on the screen in which you will need to select the drive on which Windows will be installed. Select the disk with one mouse button, and then click on the button below "Disk Setup".

    6. An additional set of options will appear on the screen where you need to select "Format".

    7. A warning will appear on the screen stating that formatting will delete all data from the disk. If you agree with this, click "OK" to continue.

    The process will begin. Once the formatting is completed, a message indicating the successful completion of the procedure will be displayed on the screen.

    Method 2: Format the disk using Acronis Disk Director

    If you do not have bootable media with Windows OS, then it is better to immediately move on to this method, since in this case you will need to write much less information to a disk or flash drive (3-4 GB versus 15 MB).

    Popular instrument Acronis Disk Director allows you to carry out complex work with hard drives even if there is no operating system installed on the computer. The utility is paid, but it has a free demo version that will allow you to verify the capabilities of this program and, of course, complete the formatting task we set.

    1. After downloading the utility from the developer’s official website, you will need to install it on your computer and then launch it.

    2. Connect the USB flash drive or disk to the computer on which the Acronis Live-CD will be written. In the left area of ​​the program window that opens, click the button "Acronis Bootable Media Builder".

    3. A utility window will appear on the screen, in which you will need to click on the button "Next".

    4. Leave the settings presented in the next window as default.

    5. Specify the components that will be written to the bootable media (in our case, for example, the component for 64-bit systems will be used, but if you do not know the bitness of your computer, select both).

    6. Finally, you will need to choose where the utility will be written: directly to a flash drive or saved as an ISO image for subsequent recording to disk. Since in our case a flash drive is connected to the computer, we select it and move on.

    7. If you need to add drivers, the program will prompt you to do so in the next step.

    8. Click the button "Continue" to start burning bootable media.

    9. The recording of the bootable media will begin, which will take a little time, since the size of the utility being written does not exceed 20 MB. As soon as a message indicating the successful completion of the process is displayed on the screen, the flash drive or disk can be removed from the computer and connected to the one on which the hard drive will be formatted via BIOS.

    10. You will need to enter the BIOS and set your boot device as the primary boot device. How to do this was described in the first method from points two to four, so we will not stop at this stage.

    11. The Acronis window will appear on the screen. To continue working with the program, you will need to select the desired utility. In our case, only one version was recorded, so we select "Acronis Disk Director".

    12. The utility will begin downloading, which may take several minutes. A disk browsing window will appear on the screen, showing the available disks. Click the button to continue "OK".

    Often, before installing an operating system, users wonder how to format a hard drive via BIOS. This procedure must be resorted to in order to clear partitions that are inaccessible after Windows starts. However, it is worth remembering that it will not be possible to completely delete information from the hard drive itself in this way.

    Description of the procedure

    To perform this, you will need a boot device with a recorded OS (it is advisable to create it in advance). The sequence of steps to format a disk via BIOS is as follows:

    1. Restart the computer with the connected media and immediately after startup enter the I/O system using the appropriate key. Usually this is F12, F8 or Escape, but if the version is very outdated, other combinations may be used.
    2. In the window that appears, you need to open the Boot tab, then Boot Option Priorities. This section allows you to select where the OS will be loaded from (from a flash drive or other device), which is what you need to do. Depending on the removable media, mark the USB port or CD-ROM.
    3. Exit, saving your changes, after which the computer will restart. Before you start formatting the disk, you will need to launch the OS from the selected device by pressing any key on the laptop.
    4. Call the command line. If the procedure is carried out using Windows 7 media, press the combination Shift+F10. For version 8, this method does not work; it is replaced by the user interface.
    5. Make sure the drive letter is correct before formatting the drive. After starting from the boot device, it may change, so in order not to delete important files, you need to enter “wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, size, description”.
    6. Go directly to the cleaning procedure. To do this, you need to enter “format /FS:NTFS X: /q” in the window, instead of X entering the desired designation, for example, C (the drive that most often needs to delete data from the system partition).

    Then all that remains is to wait for the end of the process, confirming the command by pressing Enter.

    Other methods

    The Windows installer allows you to do without CMD, which some people are afraid to use for some reason. Only the familiar interface will be used here, but before you start formatting the hard drive via BIOS, you will have to carry out the first 3 points of the previous section.

    After selecting a language, click on “Full installation”, call up a list of available disks and configure the installation. In the parameters that open, you need to mark the “Format” item with the cursor and follow further instructions. However, this method will not work if installing the Windows operating system is not required.

    In addition, you can use the ERD Commander program by creating a bootable CD based on it. In the BIOS you will also need to select a priority device to start (in this case, the drive). When the program opens, go to the MicroSoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset section and click “Next” until the working window opens. In it you need to click on the “Cleaning” item, after which the hard drive will begin formatting (this is impossible through the BIOS without external means).

    There is another program that allows you to do the same and burn an emergency flash drive - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition. It is a free analogue of utilities for working with various drives and has a friendly interface, so the user can understand how to format a hard drive without outside help.

    In general, the algorithm of actions is almost the same for most operating systems, but the names of the items may differ significantly from each other. The same applies to the input/output system: the names of the sections may not be the same as those given above due to differences in versions. However, although it is easier to clean a Windows hard drive, it is important to remember that using third-party tools is mandatory. It is not possible to format via BIOS due to the lack of proper functionality, so you will have to stock up on a boot device.

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