How Long Does Formatting a Hard Drive Take? Solutions for a Slow Formatting Process

Four Ways to Solve the Problem of Slow Hard Drive Formatting

When you encounter unexpected disk formatting issues on your Windows PC, take a pause and choose from four viable solutions. Learn about "how long does it take to format a hard drive" and easily fix the issue of "hard drive formatting never finishes".

Please provide the English content you would like translated, and I will do my best to translate it into Chinese.

Formatting a hard drive is so slow! Why does it take so long?

Case 1 - "Hey, I need your assistance as I'm having issues formatting a 500GB Seagate external hard drive on Windows 11/10. How long does it take to format a 500GB hard drive? It seems like my drive is taking forever to format. Apart from the standard Windows method, are there any faster ways to format a drive?"

Case 2 - "Hey, I have a hard drive (HGST 500GB, 7200 RPM) connected through a SATA to USB cable. I formatted it (not quick format) and after 2.5 hours I canceled the operation. Was it supposed to take that long or am I just being impatient? Is there any faster way to format than the typical Windows method (right-click on the drive in My Computer, Properties, Format)? Thanks in advance!"

Also read: SSD taking long time to boot in Windows 11

【How long does it take to format a hard drive】

You might wonder why the formatting happens the way it does.

• How long does a full format take?
• How long does it take to format a 1TB hard drive?
• How long does it take to format a 2TB hard drive?

There's no fixed time as to how long it should take to format a hard drive using Windows Explorer or the Windows Disk Management. However, the progress bar shouldn't stop or freeze.

Note that the time it takes to format a drive depends on its size and how much space is in use, but it usually only takes a few minutes to half an hour. It's estimated that a "full format" of a 1 TB hard drive in Windows could take hours, like 2 or more, and over USB 2.0, it could take a day! A "quick format," by comparison, is much faster and usually takes just a few minutes.

Why Does Formatting Take So Long? One common reason is forgetting to check the “Quick Format” option when you don't want a full format. Another cause for a long formatting time is bad sectors on your hard drive. You can fix this issue with four useful tricks.

Also read: Windows 10 update taking forever

Solution 1: Use a Third-Party Hard Drive Formatting Tool

How long does it take to format a hard drive? Learn how to fix the slow formatting problem on a computer or laptop with Windows OS with the help of a hard drive format tool - Partition Master.

This free partition manager works great in managing hard drive partitions with options to resize, delete, format, create, and more, along with many other features to discover.

Focus:

• Resize partitions with ease
• Combine partitions in Windows 10 for free without data loss
• Convert disk to GPT or MBR in Windows 11/10/8/7
• Clone hard drive to another one for disk replacement

Steps to format a hard drive or SSD using the Partition Master tool:

Step 1. Run Partition Master, right click the hard drive partition you want to format and choose “Format”.

Step 2. In the dialog box that appears, set the "Volume Label," "File System" (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT) and "Cluster Size" for the partition to be formatted, then click "OK".

Step 3: You'll see a warning; click “Yes” to proceed.

4. Click “Execute 1 Task” to preview the changes, then click “Apply” to begin formatting the partition of the hard drive.

Also see: How Long Does It Take to Format a 4 TB Hard Drive?

Fix 2: Delete the partition and create a new one instead of formatting

If the alternative method for Windows still doesn't help to shorten the formatting time, don't be discouraged. Keep using Partition Assistant, and we'll try another solution. Many users in a similar situation have resolved this issue by deleting the available partition on the hard drive and creating a new one.

Steps to delete and create partitions:

Step 1: Run AOMEI Partition Assistant and then click "Partition Management".

Before you delete any partition on the disk, make sure you have backed up important data.

Step 2: Choose to delete a partition on the hard drive or delete all partitions.

• Delete a single partition: Right-click the partition you want to delete and select "Delete". • Delete all partitions: Right-click the hard disk where you want to delete all partitions, and then select "Delete All".

Step 3: Click OK to confirm the removal.

4. Click on "Run xx Task", and then click "Apply" to save the changes.

0:00 - 0:26 Remove a single volume; 0:27 - 0:53 Remove all partitions.

Here are the steps to create a new partition:

Now, the partition or partitions should show up as “Unallocated Space.” To use it normally for data storage, you'll just need to create a new partition with a tool and assign it an appropriate file system.

Step 1. Right-click on the "Unallocated" space on your hard drive or external storage device in the main window, and select "Create".

Step 2: Set the size, label, drive letter, file system, etc. for the new partition, and then click “OK” to proceed.

Step 3. Click the “Perform Action” button on the top right, and then click “Apply” to save all the changes.

Other needed approaches include:

Solution 3: Format through SATA cable connection

If the problem is with an external USB drive, such as one you may be trying to unplug from your computer, using the appropriate USB cable could help resolve formatting issues. Good luck.

Fix 4: Check for bad sectors on the hard drive

If your hard drive has bad sectors, this process can take a very long time. You can check for bad sectors by running the partition tool again. Let's see how it works:

Step 1: Launch Partition Master. Right-click the drive you want to check and click "Surface Test."

Step 2: The operation will be performed immediately, and all bad sectors will be marked in red.

After locating the bad sectors on the external hard drive, you can split the bad sectors into an independent unallocated space or use other tools to repair bad sectors.

Conclusions

Lastly, we hope that you were able to fix the problem without having to go through the formatting process. For those who didn't find help on this page, try other methods aside from the four solutions above.

"Why Does Formatting a Hard Drive Take So Long? FAQ"

Why does formatting a hard drive take so long?

One reason is that you forgot to check the "Quick Format" option when you don't want a full format. The other reason is that a full format takes twice as long as a quick format, because it scans for bad sectors. Unrelocatable bad sectors can damage your hard drive.

2. How long does it take to format a hard drive?

Note that the time it takes to format a drive depends on its size and how much space is in use, but it usually takes from a few minutes to half an hour. It's estimated that a “full” format of a 1TB drive in Windows might take a very long time, such as two hours, and over USB 2.0, it could take a day!

Does a quick format delete all data?

A quick format does not truly erase data, making it irrecoverable; it simply “deletes” the data, which can be restored as long as it has not been overwritten.