How To Format A Drive Using Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell

Formatting a drive can be a useful step when preparing a storage device for use or trying to troubleshoot issues with an existing drive. While there are a number of different methods for formatting a drive, one commonly used approach involves using the Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell and the DiskPart utility built into Windows.

So, in this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to format a drive with DiskPart using a Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell.

Before we get started, it’s important to note that formatting a drive will erase all data on the drive. Be sure to back up any important files before proceeding with the formatting process.

This process can be done in Windows PowerShell as well.

How To Format A Drive Using Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell.

1. Press Win + X on your keyboard and click “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the menu.
2. After Command Prompt is opened, type Diskpart and press Enter. This will launch the DiskPart Utility.
3. You’ll need to list the available drives on your computer. To do this, type List disk and press Enter. This will display a list of all the drives currently connected to your computer.
4. Once you have a list of the available drives, you’ll need to select the drive that you want to format. Type Select disk X into the Command Prompt window, where “X” is the number on the drive you want to format. For example, if you want to format drive D, you would type “select disk 3” (assuming that D is the third drive listed).
5. After you’ve selected the drive you want to format, you’ll need to clean the disk. This will erase all data on the drive. To clean the disk, type Clean and press Enter.
6. Now, type Create Partition Primary into the Command Prompt window and press Enter. This will create a new primary partition on the drive.
7. With the new partition created, you’ll need to finally format the drive. Type Format fs=ntfs quick and press Enter. This will format the drive using the NTFS file system.
8. Finally, you’ll need to assign a drive letter to the newly formatted drive. To do this, type Assign letter=X where “X” is the drive letter you want to assign to the drive. For example, if you want to assign the letter D to the drive, you would type “assign letter=D”.
9. Done!

You can watch a practical tutorial on how you can go about the steps above.

That’s it! You’ve successfully formatted a drive using Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell. Keep in mind that formatting a drive will erase all data on it, so make sure you have backed up any important files before proceeding.

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