Download a free program for formatting your hard drive in Russian. Low-level formatting of a hard drive and flash drive: what programs to use

As various statistics show, not all users know how to perform the specified action. The biggest problems arise if you need to format the C drive in Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10, i.e. system hard drive.

Formatting a non-system hard drive or partition in Windows

In order to format a disk or its logical partition in Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10 (relatively speaking, drive D), just open Explorer (or “My Computer”), right-click on the disk and select “Format”.

After this, simply specify, if desired, the volume label, the file system (although it is better to leave NTFS here) and the formatting method (it makes sense to leave “Quick Format”). Click "Start" and wait until the disk is completely formatted. Sometimes, if the hard drive is large enough, this may take a long time and you may even think that the computer has frozen. There is a 95% chance that this is not the case, just wait.

Another way to format a non-system hard drive is to use the format command in a Command Prompt running as an administrator. In general, a command that quickly formats a disk in NTFS will look like this:

Format /FS:NTFS D: /q

Where D: is the drive letter of the drive being formatted.

How to format C drive in Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10

In general, this guide is also suitable for previous versions of Windows. So, if you try to format the system hard drive in Windows 7 or 8, you will see a message that:

You cannot format this volume. It contains the version of the Windows operating system currently in use. Formatting this volume may cause your computer to stop working. (Windows 8 and 8.1)
This disk is in use. The disk is in use by another program or process. Format it? And after clicking “Yes”, the message “Windows cannot format this disk. Quit any other programs that are using the drive, make sure no windows are displaying its contents, and then try again.

What is happening is easily explained - Windows cannot format the disk on which it itself is located. Moreover, even if the operating system is installed on drive D or any other, the first partition (i.e., drive C) will still contain the files necessary to load the operating system, since when you turn on the computer, the BIOS will first start loading from there.

Some notes

Thus, when formatting drive C, you should remember that this action implies the subsequent installation of Windows (or another OS) or, if Windows is installed on another partition, the OS boot configuration after formatting, which is not the most trivial task and, if you are not too If you're an experienced user (and apparently you are, since you're here), I wouldn't recommend trying this.

Formatting

If you are confident in what you are doing, then continue. In order to format drive C or the Windows system partition, you will need to boot from some other media:

, boot disk.
Any other bootable media - LiveCD, Hiren’s Boot CD, Bart PE and others.

There are also special solutions such as Acronis Disk Director, Paragon Partition Magic or Manager and others. But we will not consider them: firstly, these products are paid, and secondly, for the purposes of simple formatting they are unnecessary.

Formatting using a bootable USB flash drive or disk Windows 7 and 8

In order to format the system disk using this method, boot from the appropriate installation media and select “Full installation” when selecting the installation type. The next thing you will see is the selection of the partition for installation.

Another way is to press Shift + F10 at any time during installation, the command line will open. From which you can also format (how to do this was written above). Here you need to take into account that in the installation program the drive letter C may be different; in order to find it out, first use the command:

Wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, description

And, to clarify whether something was mixed up, use the DIR D: command, where D: is the drive letter. (Using this command you will see the contents of the folders on the disk).

After this, you can already apply format to the desired section.

How to format a drive using LiveCD

Formatting a hard drive using various types of LiveCD is not much different from simply formatting it in Windows. Since when booting from a LiveCD, all the really necessary data is located in the computer’s RAM, you can use various BartPE options to format the system hard drive simply through Explorer. And, just like in the options already described, use the format command on the command line.

There are other formatting nuances, but I will describe them in one of the following articles. And in order for a novice user to know how to format drive C, this article, I think, will be enough. If anything, ask questions in the comments.

Formatting a hard drive is the process of creating a file system on its partition, accompanied by deleting data and creating a new file system structure. Functionality for formatting hard drives and solid-state drives is contained in almost all modern operating systems, but the standard mechanism is not always optimal and applicable. This material will tell you in more detail how to format a hard drive in several ways.

It is very easy to format a HDD using standard tools. To do this, you need to select the desired partition in Explorer, right-click and select “Format” from the pop-up menu.

In the menu that opens, select formatting options. It is recommended to use NTFS as the file system, and leave the cluster size as standard. Checking the box next to “Quick formatting” significantly speeds up the process, but only the FS table is created anew. The data itself physically remains on the disk, although it becomes inaccessible. If you do not check the box, all data will be physically erased (filling each memory cell with zeros), but the process will take a long time. A hard drive with a capacity of several terabytes will take hours to format. But such formatting allows you to permanently destroy data, for example, when transferring the drive to a new owner.

An alternative way to format the HDD using standard means is through the “Control Panel”. To do this, you need to find the “Administration” menu, select “Computer Management” in it and find “Disk Management” in the left column. The menu that opens will display all drives in the form of a structure. The advantage of this method is that this way you can format disks that do not have a partition and therefore are not displayed in Explorer.

How to format a hard drive via the command line

To format a disk via the command line, there is a utility command called format. To use it, you need to run the command line as an administrator and enter the format command. It should look like this:

format [drive letter]:- formatting will take place without any questions, into the same FS that is on the disk, in a slow way (with complete erasing).

format [drive letter]: /q — the “/q” flag triggers a quick format, without physically clearing the contents of its memory. The flag can be placed in combination with any other keys.

format [drive letter]: fs:[file system]— formatting the selected partition into one of the supported file systems: NTFS, FAT, FAT32.

format [drive letter]: fs:[file system] /q- the same thing, but with quick formatting.

How to format your hard drive before installing Windows

To format your hard drive before installing Windows, you need to select a full installation, wait until the partition selection menu for installation appears, click on the desired drive and press the “Format” button at the bottom. The system will independently determine the optimal formatting method, file system type and cluster size. The whole process takes less than a minute.

Before you format your hard drive, installing Windows may require creating additional system partitions to load the OS. The screenshot below shows that such a partition takes up 100 MB. It stores part of the system bootloader.

The disadvantage of formatting this way is that you can't manually manipulate the parameters. Ordinary users do not need this, but sometimes they need FAT32 instead of the standard NTFS system. For example, such a need arises on tablets with Intel processors and two installed operating systems (Windows + Android), like the ten-inch Chuwi Hi10. In order for the Windows partition to be visible from Android, it must be formatted in a compatible file system. The “green robot” cannot work with NTFS without special plugins and third-party programs.

The correct answer to this question is “not at all.” The computer's BIOS is intended for slightly different purposes and does not have functionality for working with the HDD. Usually, “formatting from Bios” is popularly known as formatting via the command line in a text-based operating system (for example, MS-DOS). The advantage of this solution is that you can even work with a system partition that is not in use.

To format a hard drive using a boot disk with DOS, you need to create an image of such an OS, write it to a flash drive and copy the formatting utility there. Instead of DOS, you can also use a special program for working with HDDs, for example, GParted. This option is preferable as it is more functional.

To format a HDD from BIOS using a bootable USB flash drive, you need to download. This is an automatic installer that will download and write the latest version of Gparted to a flash drive.

After creating the flash drive, you need to restart the PC, go to Bios (usually by pressing DEl or F2) and find the Boot menu. In it you should select the item containing the words “Boot device priority” or something similar in meaning. Among them, you should put your flash drive first. Then you need to press F10, agree to save the settings and wait for loading from the flash drive.

In the loaded menu of the GParted program, you need to select the language, select the disk and find the item responsible for formatting. You can select the file system, cluster size, format type, and other options.

Many users believe that formatting is nothing more than first deleting all data from the hard drive in order to write new ones. This is true, but in fact, deleting data from the hard drive is a side effect of formatting. This procedure comes in two types: low-level and logical.

Low-level formatting of a hard drive is done at the production stage. In this case, markings are created on the “screw” necessary for the correct positioning of the heads.
Logical, executed after it is divided into partitions, which are named: drive D:\ E:\, etc. Logical formatting creates a boot sector, a file structure, and a partition table with a boot record. The entire disk space of the formatted “screw” is divided into clusters.

In addition, formatting can be normal or accelerated. In the usual case, the file structure is deleted and broken clusters are checked, which are rejected and are not used in the future for recording information.

During quick formatting, only the file table is deleted. All new data is written over old data.

Working with a hard drive using standard Windows OS tools

Many people ask how to format a hard drive using their own operating system. There is nothing simpler:

If you decide to format the hard drive partition where your operating system is located, it is impossible to do this using Windows. This operation must be done via DOS and using any LiveCD.

If you are wondering how to format a hard drive via BIOS, you should read the instructions to the end and follow all the steps described below.

Formatting a “screw” via BIOS means using a boot disk, which is launched by setting up the device in the BIOS.

Restart your PC.
Before starting the OS, enter the BIOS, select the BOOT tab, where select the required device as the boot device (depending on what media the boot disk is located on).
Save the changes and restart your PC.
After loading the disk, press the key combination Shift+F10.
After opening the command line, type format /FS:NTFS X: /q - where X is the required partition. For a Fat 32 file system, type format /FS:FAT32 X: /q - where X is the required partition.
Then press Enter and type Y as confirmation.

Now all that's left to do is wait.

Working with a hard drive when installing Windows OS

Working with the hard drive with third-party programs

There are a lot of software solutions for working with disks. The most popular program for formatting a hard drive is Acronis Disk Director Suite. It is very easy to use; it is most often present in various LiveCD builds.

Questions and answers

Several hundred people daily ask our specialists the question: how to low-level format a hard drive from a flash drive.

In fact, there are times when removing a virus requires deleting the entire boot sector. And for this there are certain software tools, such as SeaTools for DOS. When you run this program as standard, a bootable USB drive is created, from which you load and select one of three types of hard drive cleaning.

In fact, such a procedure cannot be called a completely low level, but the possibility of completely deleting data by deleting the zero track and sectors of the hard disk, as well as filling the entire disk space with zeros, is closest to the concept of low-level formatting.

How to completely format a hard drive so that the data on it cannot be recovered?

Indeed, even after reformatting, data can be restored using special software. If you need to permanently delete all information from the hard drive, for example, when reselling a PC, then use the program to completely format the hard drive Eraser HDD.

After downloading, the program is immediately ready to work and does not require additional settings. By clicking the Start button, you will see a list of sections of your “screw” under the numbers. Select the number of the partition that requires full formatting, paste it into the window and click Apply. After which you will be asked for confirmation for the last time that all information is permanently deleted. After confirmation, reboot and go through the hard drive initialization procedure.

Formatting a hard drive is a software process of applying marks to elements of the magnetic platter memory area and creating a new file structure of the media. Without labels and file system structure, a hard drive is a useless device; you cannot write information to it due to the physical and software features of the processes of recording, storing and reading information.

Physically, nothing happens to it when formatting a hard drive, but at the software level, its logical structure is organized on the media - a certain order necessary for recording, storing, editing and deleting data. Otherwise, the logical structure of the disk is called a file system. Depending on the selected file system, the speed of access to information, the maximum length of a file name, the number of files in one directory, the efficiency of the drive, search methods, recording information, etc. will differ.

Formatting a hard drive is divided into two types. These are low-level and high-level formatting.

Low-level formatting is a process by which special electronic marks called servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface of the polished platters of your HDD. They contain service information about the positioning of the reading heads and the position of sectors and tracks of the disk, which determine the physical format of the drive. This procedure is performed on special factory equipment, since before this the media does not contain any information about the sectors and tracks of the plate(s), due to the absence of which, working with the media is impossible. Due to the coefficient of volumetric expansion of the materials (as many know from school physics lessons) from which HDD platters were made in the past and the stepper motors that control the positioning of the heads, sectors and tracks were displaced relative to the read heads. Thus, when, according to the controller, the head was in the desired sector, it could physically be on the adjacent track. Because of this, the hard drive malfunctioned and bad (inoperative) sectors appeared (if the controller thinks that the head is in the first sector, but in reality it is positioned, for example, above the 5th, then the first four sectors are inaccessible to it). Such hard drives required repeated low-level formatting throughout their entire service life, which required the complete and repeated destruction of all data on the hard drive platter(s).

In new HDDs, this problem was solved by using a voice coil in the read head mechanism, due to which the influence of thermal expansion was compensated by recalibrating the operating parameters of the disk heads (to put it simply, everything was solved at the software level by simple redirection).

Low-level formatting is necessary to solve several problems and is performed in such cases:

at the manufacturing facility to create the physical structure of the manufactured hard drive before testing and delivery to the end user;
on old hard drives to reset the file system (due to the coefficient of linear expansion of materials when heated during long-term operation of the HDD, the head moves slightly in relation to the formed grid of tracks and sectors);
complete, reliable and irrevocable erasure of all information stored on the hard drive, for example, before selling your own computer or the hard drive itself.

High-level HDD formatting is the process of forming the file structure of a hard drive, which consists of creating a master boot record, a file table, a file system structure and, depending on the formatting option, checking the surface of the hard drive platters for damaged sectors and then replacing or deactivating them. High-level formatting prepares the hard drive for use by the operating system to store data on it.

High-level formatting is divided into two types: quick and full. During the fast process, the file table is updated, which stores file names and paths to them, attributes, etc. After this, its new structure is formed, and a master boot record of the disk or its logical partition is created. Upon completion of the process, the operating system will detect the hard drive or logical drive as clean, although physically all the information on it will remain intact, with the exception of the file table - all data in it will be marked as non-existent and will be overwritten with new bits of information during operation.

Full formatting is a procedure for clearing the file table, as during quick formatting, but with subsequent rewriting of each sector with zero bits of information. Also, during full formatting, all sectors of the hard drive will be checked for functionality. If a bad sector is detected, it will be replaced with a functional one that is in reserve, or simply excluded, as a result of which the usable volume of the HDD will slightly decrease.

High-level formatting of hard drives and their partitions must be performed in the following cases:

during reinstallation of the operating system to reset all data located on them and form a new disk structure;
when dividing the drive into logical drives;
for high-quality checking of magnetic plates for the presence of damaged sectors;
immediately after low-level formatting to form the file structure of the disk by the manufacturer or user (mandatory procedure);
deleting all information on the hard drive.

2. Formatting a non-system hard drive

Any operating system of the Windows family is located on a disk or its partition, which is designated as system. It contains the master boot record and Windows system files, thanks to which the software interacts with the hardware. There may be several such partitions, but, as a rule, the user has one operating system installed, which implies the presence of a single system partition. All other partitions and connected to the computer hard drives are not systemic. The second and subsequent hard drives are non-system, so the procedure for formatting them is no different from formatting removable USB drives.

Let's consider methods for forming the file structure of non-system hard drives using tools built into the operating system and using third-party software products designed to work with hard drives.

2.1. Formatting using BIOS

One way to format a hard drive is to use a bootable flash drive or CD with an installation distribution of the Windows operating system, the so-called LiveCD or bootable media with one of the programs for formatting storage media. There are versions of programs, such as AcronisDiskDirector, that can boot directly from a flash drive, which means they work without an operating system. The latest versions of Acronis have a bootable media creation wizard. Such a flash drive will allow the AcronisDiskDirector program to boot from the BIOS and format the hard drive.

In addition to third-party programs, formatting a hard drive with BIOS can be done by booting from the installation disk with the Windows distribution using the command line or the operating system installer. All these options will be discussed in more detail below.

2.2. Formatting using Windows

The Windows operating system contains all the tools necessary to format hard drives. In this section, we will consider all the methods to format a hard drive using the tools provided by the Windows operating system.

2.2.1. Through properties

The simplest way to prepare a hard drive for work, clear it of unnecessary information and form a new system is to format it through the context menu.

2.2.2. Through “Creating and formatting hard disk partitions”

The second method to format a hard drive using the Windows operating system tools is the Disk Management snap-in, located in the Computer Management system console.

“Disk Management” is a Windows system service designed to manage flash drives, hard drives and their partitions. This program allows you to format hard drives connected to your computer in one of three file systems and create new partitions on them. Almost all actions are performed without rebooting the operating system, which will not distract the user from his main work.

You can start Disk Management using one of the following methods.

Via the Start menu

Via "My Computer"

Via "Control Panel"

We have launched the Computer Management service. Next, you need to go to its subsection called “Disk Management”, which, in turn, is located in the “Storage Devices” section.

During formatting, you will not see any windows with the progress of the operation, except for the inscription “Formatting” in the “Status” line (see screenshot).

Our hard drive is formatted in the selected file system and is ready for further use. You will be notified of this by a dialog box and a system signal.

2.2.3. Command line

In addition to formatting hard drives through graphical interfaces, the operating system, since the days of console MS-DOS, allows the formation of a new file system of the hard drive with the deletion of all files and, with full formatting, checking its surface for integrity, using system commands entered into the command line console, also called the Windows command interpreter.

The command line allows the user to interact with the computer directly, without any intermediaries in the form of third-party software. It is a window for entering text commands understandable to the operating system with many parameters for direct control of the operating system or computer hardware. Naturally, using the command line, you can quickly format the hard drive. To do this, launch the system console using any of the listed methods or a more convenient method for you.

Through the Run window

Via the Start menu

Using Windows Explorer

The command line is launched by calling the file “cmd.exe” located in the “System32” folder of the system directory of the Windows operating system. To launch the command line, you can go to c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe or use the shortcut to launch the command interpreter.

Having launched the command line, we will see a black window on the screen where you can enter text commands that are understandable for the Windows operating system, starting with its first versions.

If you did not enter a label, the operating system will ask you to enter it before formatting or leave the hard drive without a name by pressing “Enter” (see screenshot).

The process of formatting a hard drive, depending on the specified parameters and storage capacity, can last from several seconds to several tens of minutes. Formatting is accompanied by the inscription: “Creating file system structures.”

At the end of the process, the console window will display the following message: “Format completed” and the results of the operation will appear.

Now our hard drive is formatted using the system console and is ready for further use.

2.3 Formatting a disk using the HDD Low Level Format Tool

The HDD Low Level Format Tool utility, or HDDLLFT for short, is designed for low-level formatting of hard drives and digital storage media based on memory chips. It copes with the task perfectly even in cases where the magnetic surface of the plate is severely damaged.

Carrying out the procedure for formatting a hard drive through the utility does not require any special user knowledge.

Keep in mind that in the free version of the HDD Low Level Format Tool, the format speed is limited to 50 Mb/s, which, with significant volumes of modern hard drives, during a full format and checking the drive for bad sectors, can result in several hours of work. The second drawback of the program is the inability to specify the cluster size.

3. Formatting the system hard drive

A system hard drive is, as a rule, a high-speed (with a platter rotation speed of 10,000 rpm, although it can be with a standard 7200 rpm) hard drive on which the operating system is installed. Based on this, it will not be possible to format it using Windows. Formatting a system hard drive is carried out using a different method, the essence of which is no different from forming a new file system for a regular hard drive. The only difference is that the utility for creating a new file system will have to be launched from the installation disk or flash drive.

3.1. Formatting using a bootable USB flash drive or disk

3.1.1. Through the Windows operating system installer

One of the most common methods to format a hard drive used as a system drive is to use removable media or a CD and a Windows OS installation distribution.

We will not consider how to create bootable media; many articles have been written on this subject on the Russian-language segment of the Internet. Let's get straight to the point.

We insert the bootable flash drive into the USB socket of your computer or laptop (or the CD into its drive).
Reboot or turn on the computer.

Immediately after loading the basic I/O system and initializing it and testing the equipment, we begin to click on the quick selection key for boot media.

This key can be "F9" or "F11" (see the manual for your motherboard or laptop for instructions), and this data is also displayed during BIOS boot.

We select our media as the device to which control of the system will be transferred (in our case, it is a 4 GB USB flash drive for booting from UEFI).

When a similar black screen with an inscription appears, press any button on the keyboard.

Information will be read from the bootloader program to which the BIOS has transferred control.

Depending on the Windows build, we select the operating system installation option (with a different bootloader interface, using third-party assemblies, the essence of the process will remain the same).
Select the installation language. Naturally, it will be Russian, as will the keyboard layout, time format, etc.

In the next window, simply click “Install ->”.

We accept the terms of use of the operating system, preferably after reading them.

We stop at the second option so that we can get into the hard drive settings menu.

Click “Full installation...”.

Using the keyboard and mouse, select the required hard drive if there are several of them connected to the computer, and click “Disk Setup”.

The toolbar will change slightly.

Click on the “Format” button.

A standard window will appear warning that all files and programs on the disk will be destroyed.

Click “Ok” to confirm your intentions.

After clearing the table of contents, the hard drive will be formatted and ready to install the operating system.

This method is reasonable to use in cases where the Windows operating system cannot format the hard drive, for example, because it is used by some application or is a system partition.

3.1.2. Formatting the system hard drive via the command line by booting from the installation disk/flash drive

Another simple option to format the disk on which the operating system is located is to use the command line by booting from a disk or flash drive with installation files for the Windows operating system.

3.2. Acronis Disk Director

To launch the bootable media creation wizard, go to the “Backup and Restore” tab on the program control panel, which is designed in the style of a ribbon, like Microsoft Office, starting with the 2007 edition.
Click on the “Create bootable media” item.
Depending on the version of the program, a window may appear asking you to select the type of boot media. It is recommended to select a bootloader based on Windows PE. Click “Next”.

We select the necessary components on the basis of which the wizard will create a bootable USB flash drive.

To format a hard drive, the AcronisDiskDirector program is sufficient. If you want to have a tool for creating backup copies of partitions, also select AcronisTrueImage.

Select the type of Acronis bootable media to be created.
Then we confirm our intentions to write the program files to the flash drive, having first destroyed all the files on it, and wait for the end of the writing process.
We boot from the created drive.

To do this, restart the computer and select our flash drive as boot media. This is done by changing the priority in the list of boot devices (the “Boot” menu item) in your BIOS or by using the boot device selection hotkey.

In most cases, during the initialization procedure, which occurs before the operating system boots, you must press the F11, F9 or other key to bring up the boot menu. In it, select the USB drive and click “Enter”.
We are waiting for the program to load.

Typically, this procedure takes little longer than loading Acronis Disk Director in Windows.
We select our hard drive and call the formatting procedure using any method:
In the dialog box that appears, select the hard drive formatting options:
- file system – it is recommended to use NTFS, due to support for files larger than 4 GB, which is not available for FAT and FAT32;
- Leave the cluster size at “Auto” if you have no idea what this value is. However, to store a huge number of small files, it is recommended to select a cluster size of less than 4 KB;
- volume label – enter the name of the hard drive or leave the field blank.

Having set all the parameters, we turn our attention to the toolbar located at the top of the screen. Click on the button called “Apply pending operations (1)”.

After a short loading of the list of operations, a small window will appear with their detailed description and parameters.

If you are confident in the actions you are performing, check the correctness of the specified parameters and click on the “Continue” button.

After a few seconds of fixing the operation, the hard drive formatting procedure will start.

Be careful, the program will not display a warning window asking you to confirm the operation and will not notify you that all data on the hard drive has been destroyed.

Formatting will occur within a few seconds, since the utility uses a quick formatting algorithm. At the end of the procedure, the window will close automatically, and the hard drive with a cleared file table and a new file system will be ready for further use.

3.3. Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager is the most powerful free software product for working with hard drives. Naturally, you can use it to format any hard drive or partition. In addition, the utility can work with backups, change and create logical partitions, install several operating systems on a disk, and so on.

Load the LiveCD or installation distribution of the Windows operating system, which includes the Paragon Partition Manager program.
We write the image to removable media and boot from it, specifying the highest boot priority from a flash drive in the BIOS or selecting the drive with the Paragon Partition Manager distribution as the boot device.
We select our program using the mouse cursor or cursor keys and the “Enter” button, depending on the graphical menu and the bootloader used to create the LiveCD.
The main menu of the utility will appear, where we select “Partition Manager” in the list on the left, and then in its right frame.
In the next window, in the list of your hard drives, select the one you want to format.

This can be done both in the “Disk Panel” tab and in the lower frame called “Partition List”.
Call up the context menu of the magnetic drive and select the “Format” command in it, which is located in one of the first places.
Specify the file system and the new hard drive label.
Click “Advanced options” if you want to change the number of sectors in one cluster. You can also specify here whether to perform formatting using the built-in Windows “format” command, which we became familiar with when formatting a disk from the Shell, or use the developers’ own algorithm.
Click “Format”.

The program will not ask for confirmation of the operation, but it will not start executing the command specified to it.

To do this, click on the “Apply intended changes” button, which is located in the toolbar under the main menu.

To view planned changes, use the magnifying glass button.
In the dialogue, we agree to make changes by clicking “Yes”.
We are waiting for a notification that the program has completed its operation.

The same is done through the main menu of the program.

4. Possible errors and ways to solve them

One of the many problems that users face when formatting a hard drive is the use of outdated software. This happens because the user has not updated the disk management program that he trusts for several years. Also, using queries like “download hacked acronis” often leads to the most popular sites, which have been at the top of search engines for many months and contain outdated versions of the software.

Make sure your hard drive software is up to date, especially if you are using one of the latest versions of Windows.

The second problem is an error when trying to format the disk being used, especially for system partitions. Also, some application can use the hard drive or its partition, even in read mode, while the user is trying to format it. The way out of this situation is to use bootable LiveCDs or media with a Windows distribution.

An error in the process of formatting a hard drive due to a huge number of damaged sectors occurs when trying to fully format a hard drive, the surface of which is replete with damaged memory cells. Run a HDD scan, for example, with the Victoria utility, with reassignment of damaged areas or their exclusion from the area used for storing information.

When formatting a disk, flash drive or other storage device in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7 in various ways, you can select quick formatting (clearing the table of contents) or not select it, thereby performing a full formatting. At the same time, for a novice user it is usually not clear what the difference is between quick and full formatting of the drive and which one should be chosen in each specific case.

This material provides details on the differences between quick and complete formatting of a hard drive or USB flash drive, as well as which option is best to choose depending on the situation (including formatting options for SSDs).

Note: the article is about formatting in Windows 7 - Windows 10; some of the given nuances of full formatting work differently in XP.

Differences between quick and full disk formatting

In order to understand the difference between quick and complete formatting of a drive in Windows, it is enough to know what happens in each case. Let me note right away that we are talking about formatting using built-in system tools, such as

Let's move directly to what quick and full formatting is and what exactly happens to the disk or flash drive in each option.

Quick formatting- in this case, the space on the drive is written to the boot sector and an empty table of the selected file system (FAT32, NTFS, ExFAT). The disk space is marked as unused without actually deleting the data on it. Quick formatting takes significantly less time (hundreds to thousands of times) than full formatting of the same drive.
Full formatting- when a disk or flash drive is fully formatted, in addition to the above actions, zeros are also written (i.e. cleared) to all sectors of the disk (starting with Windows Vista), and the drive is also checked for the presence of damaged sectors; if present, they are corrected or marked appropriately to avoid recording on them in the future. It takes a really long time, especially for large HDDs.

In most cases, for normal work scenarios: quick disk cleanup for further use, when reinstalling Windows and in other similar situations, it is enough to use quick formatting. However, in some cases the complete one may be useful.

Quick or full formatting - which one to use and when

As noted above, it is often better and faster to use a quick format, however there may be exceptions when a full format may be preferable. The next two points when full formatting may be required are only for HDD and USB flash drives, about SSD solid state drives - immediately after this.

If you plan to give the drive to someone and you are concerned that someone else might be able to recover data from it, it is better to perform a full format. Files can be restored quite easily after quick formatting, see, for example, .
If you need to check the disk or when, during a simple quick format (for example, when installing Windows), subsequent copying of files occurs with errors, causing speculation that the disk may contain bad sectors. However, you can manually check the disk for bad sectors, and after that use quick format: .

Formatting SSD drives

SSDs stand apart in this regard. For them, in all cases it is better to use quick rather than full formatting:

If you do this on a modern operating system, then the data cannot be recovered from the SSD after quick formatting (starting with Windows 7, the TRIM command is used when formatting SSDs).
Full formatting and writing zeros can be harmful to the SSD. However, I’m not sure that Windows 10 - 7 will do this on a solid-state drive even if you select full formatting (unfortunately, I didn’t find any factual information on this issue, but there is reason to assume that this is taken into account, like many other things, see) .

I conclude with this: I hope some of the readers found the information useful. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments to this article.