6 Best Hard Drive Formatting | HDD Formatting Utilities

The best disk formatting tools for 2022 are here, including third-party HDD formatting tools, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, HDD Low-Level Format Tool, and inbuilt disk formatters like File Explorer, Disk Management, and Command Prompt in Windows 10/8/7. Pick anyone to format your disk, HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, USB drive, and SD card with ease.

Top 6 Best Hard Drive Formatting Tools for 2024

1. Partition Wizard Format Tool 2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 3. HDD Low Level Format Tool 4. Windows File Explorer 5. Windows Disk Management 6. Windows Command Prompt (CMD)

Each of the hard disk formatting tools in the list can be used to format any drive on Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Windows Server operating systems. Some of them are free to use, while others are for commercial use. Below, you'll find detailed descriptions of the products along with their pros and cons.

Important: Back up your data before formatting the disk.

There are usually two ways to format a disk:

Regardless of which method you choose to format the drive, make sure to create a backup first to prevent important data from being completely erased:

Manually copy over any important files and documents to another device. Alternatively, use a Windows backup software to backup the entire disk/partition or selected files and folders to another device in one go.

#1. MiniTool Partition Wizard – Best Hard Disk Formatting Tool for Free Download

• Supported file systems: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3, and EXT4
• User interface: Simple, graphical, clean, and beginner-friendly

tools Partition Master Free is a comprehensive disk and partition management tool that includes, but is not limited to, disk formatting capabilities. It ranks as the top best hard drive formatter due to the following reasons:

Pros and Cons:

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Video Tutorial:

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#HDD Formatting Tool#Free Disk Formatting Tool#Free Formatting Utility#Windows

Guide - How to Format a Disk - HDD/SSD, USB, etc., Using a Formatting Tool:

Step 1: Right-click on the hard drive partition and select the “Format” option.

Step 2: In the new window, assign a volume label, file system, and cluster size to the partition, then click OK.

Step 3: A warning will appear. Click “Yes” to proceed.

Step 4: Click the "Perform 1 Task" button, and then click "Apply" to begin formatting the hard drive partition.

If you like this method, feel free to share the disk formatter software to help more of your friends format hard drive like a pro:

#2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - A formatting utility for Windows XP

• Supported file systems: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
• User interface: A bit outdated, but relatively easy to use

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a Windows-based disk formatting utility that can format any drive. It should work on all versions of Windows, old and new, but it particularly shines when running on the now-ancient Windows XP. With HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, you can format any USB flash drive, hard disk, or memory card to the FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems. Additionally, it can create a DOS bootable disc to help get your PC up and running in case of computer failure.

Pros and Cons:

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#HP USB Disk Format Tool#Format Disk#Free

Guidelines - How to use the HP Disk Storage Format Utility to format a hard drive

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to the Windows XP computer and click on “My Computer.” Select the USB drive that you want to format.

From the File System menu, select a file system, and type a name for the formatted disk in the Volume Label text box.

Step 3. Click on the "Quick Format" option to enable it. If this is not checked, the drive will undergo a slower low-level format.

Step 4. Click the “Start” button to begin formatting the USB drive.

#3. HDD LLF Low-Level Format Tool - Best Low-Level Hard Disk Formatting Utility

• Supported operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2
• User interface: Outdated and complicated to use

HDD Low Level Format Tool is a utility designed specifically for low-level hard drive formatting. After running this low-level formatting tool, the entire disk surface will be erased. Hence, data recovery will become impossible! This HDD low-level formatting tool is free for personal and home use, but it's limited to 80 GB per hour, which equals approximately 50 MB/s.

Pros and Cons:

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#Low-level disk formatting tool#Low-level formatting utility#Free

Step 1: Download and run HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool on your computer.

Step 2: Plug the HDD or USB drive into your computer, and launch the low-level formatting tool.

Step 3. Select the desired disk and click on "Continue". Confirm your choice by clicking "Yes".

Step 4: Click on "Low-level Format" in the tab to begin the process.

#4. File Explorer - The Easiest Disk Formatting Tool in Windows 10/8/7

• Supported file systems: NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32
• User interface: Intuitive and easy to use throughout the formatting process

This is the first native Windows disk formatting option that we'll introduce. Press Windows+E to quickly bring up File Explorer. Your local hard drives and any externally connected drives will show up there. As long as the drive you want to format is visible, you can begin a quick format by using the “Format” option with just a few simple steps.

Format hard drive with File Explorer

Advantages and Disadvantages

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#Windows Disk Formatting Tool#Free Hard Disk Partition Formatter#Windows Operating System

Guide - How to Format HDD/SSD or Storage Device in File Explorer

Step 1: Open the Windows File Explorer, locate the target hard drive you need to format, right-click on it, and choose "Format."

Step 2. Give the drive a new name and format its file system to NTFS or another format.

Step 3: Click “Start” to begin formatting.

#5. Windows Disk Management - Built-in Free Hard Disk Formatting Tool

• Supported file systems: NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32
• User interface: Clean design with a few useful disk management features

Windows Disk Management is a built-in free tool for Windows, meaning you can easily access it on your computer without downloading anything. It comes in handy when you're trying to format a drive that doesn't show up in File Explorer. It excels at formatting problematic storage devices with issues like corrupted file systems, unformatted errors, or inaccessible drives.

Advantages and Disadvantages

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Guide - How to Format a Hard Disk Partition in Disk Management

Step 1: Right-click on "This PC" and select "Manage".

Step 2. Open Disk Management.

Step 3: Right-click the target hard drive partition and choose "Format."

Step 4: Give the drive a label, choose a file system, and click “OK” to begin formatting the drive.

#6. Command Prompt - The Powerhouse Disk Formatting Tool for Pros

• Supported file systems: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3, and EXT4 • User interface: Very unintuitive for beginners

The Windows Command Prompt is a hidden but powerful troubleshooting tool for most computer and hard drive issues that regular users will ever encounter. It allows you to check, test, or fix problems with your computer using various command lines. For example, you would use the “diskpart” command line to format a disk drive.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

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#Free CMD Disk Formatting Tool#Windows Disk Formatting Tool#Free

Guide - How to Use the DiskPart Command to Format a Disk

Step 1: Right-click the Windows icon and select “Search.” Type in Command Prompt.

Right-click Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”.

Step 2: Type diskpart in the Command Prompt, and press Enter.

Step 3. Type the following command in DiskPart and press Enter to quick format the hard drive:

• list disk
• select disk 2 (replace "2" with your disk number)
• list volume
• select volume 10 (replace "10" with the volume number of the partition you want to format)
• format fs=ntfs quick (if you need to format the partition to FAT32 or another file system, replace "ntfs" with "fat32", "exfat", etc.)

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Step 4: Type exit and press Enter to close the program when DiskPart indicates that the volume has been successfully formatted.

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Conclusion: What to Do After Formatting the Hard Drive

Some of you might have the same question in mind about what to do after formatting your hard drive. Here is a list of things you can do to make the most out of your formatted hard drive:

1. Repartition the hard drive to take full advantage of the available space.

For this, you may need a reliable partition manager, like the free Partition Master, to help you freely partition hard drive on Windows 10. You can also use it to merge partitions or extend disk partition based on your needs.

# 2. Save the file to a formatted hard drive.

# 3. Recover files lost due to formatting.

If you didn't back up data before formatting and lost important files, you can use professional data recovery software to perform data recovery after formatting.