How to format a disk with Windows 7. How to format a disk through the BIOS. What should I do if an external disk asks for formatting

In recent years, the computer literacy of the population has somewhat increased. In any case, many are aware of the installation of the operating system and programs, and some can already deal with their home router, since from the technical support of the majority of domestic providers nothing sensible can be achieved.

But still the vast majority of users do not know anything about the computer that would be more difficult than sitting out on social networks. In particular, if there are any serious software failures that can be eliminated only by a full reinstallation of the OS, they have no idea how to format the disk with Windows 7.

Of course, such a need arises not so often, but if a newcomer encounters a problem, then there may be a lot of problems. That is why you will probably benefit from reading this article in order to create your own idea of the process.

The essence of formatting. What is it for?

Formatting is the process by which the surface of the hard disk is partitioned. The most basic - low-level formatting, which is only produced at the factory. We are also interested in a high-level process that changes the logical partitions on disks.

Before formatting a disk with Windows 7, the user must determine the type of file system, cluster size and other technical characteristics of the newly created partition. This should not be treated negligently, since these operations depend on the survivability of the carrier and the amount of free space on it.

What is the optimal cluster size?

In particular, if you set the maximum possible cluster size and store only text documents on such a drive, you'll waste your free space. Suppose that you have defined a volume of 512 KB. That is, by writing to the disk only a text file of 20 B, you occupy a whole cluster, 99% of which will be used for nothing.

How to format the system partition?

If you know a little about computers, then remember the order of standard preparation of the new section. By its icon, you can right-click and select "Format" from the context menu. But there is one problem.

The fact is that you can not format the system partition (on which the system is installed). If you try, you will receive a warning that this operation can not be performed. How to be?

Use the boot disk

Since there is a goal to learn how to format a disk with Windows 7, you have to get the boot disk from which you installed the system. If there is not one, you need to do it yourself. To do this, you need to record the downloaded image from the network (or the autogenerated image) on the optical disk.

It needs to be inserted into the drive, rebooted the computer, and in BIOS set the boot from the CD / DVD drive. How to do it, you will have to learn by yourself, as different manufacturers provide different versions of "BIOS" with cardinally different from each other interfaces.

As a rule, all the information you need should be posted on the site of the motherboard manufacturer. So, after learning how to format a disk through the BIOS, you will have to find this information.

So, right after booting from the optical drive you will get to the OS setup menu. Since we are talking about Windows 7, even the most "green" beginners can relax: everything is so clear (almost at the level of intuition) that even a child can cope.

Once the first dialog box appears, select "Install" in the dialog. Then the required OS version is selected (if you enter the key, the installation program will select the required one). After that, the dialog box for working with disks appears. Having finally understood how to format a system disk, learn its letter in advance, otherwise you can easily lose all your collection of music or movies.

That's what we need. Select the desired partition by clicking on it with the left mouse button. At the very bottom of the window there should be a link "Disk Configuration". Selecting it, you will see the appearance of other options. You need the "Format" section. Select the desired file system and click "OK". Then you can either continue the installation of Windows, or you can install some other operating system.

Since the system itself is the only way to format the disk during installation, in the absence of any experience it is better to leave the settings that are offered by default.

Live CD

If you've ever dealt with system administration, you probably know about Live CDs, which in the case of Windows are often called BartPE. With such a carrier, you can not only boot from under "BIOS", but also get a fully working system as a result. Since the system disk will not be formatted from under the operating OS (it's not Linux, after all), this option can be the only true one.

Since the system with the "live CD" is loaded into RAM, you can click on any disk (including the system one) with the right mouse button, and then select the "Format" option in the context menu. All subsequent actions are no different from those that we have already described in this article.

The same can be done by using the installation disc with any Linux distribution. As a rule, they all have a Live CD-mode, so you will not have to perform any dances with the console. Ideally, the same Ubuntu, whose interface is as simple and intuitive as possible.

Another variant

But it often happens that two systems are installed on one disk at once. In particular, this happens because of inexperience, when a person mistakenly places several copies of an identical OS on the same physical disk.

This can not be done, because such a combination may well cause problems when downloading and running programs. In addition, we can not exclude the human factor, when from the first system users delete the second system files. Of course, it is not necessary to talk about stable work in the latter case.

So how do you format the drive with Windows 7 then? Everything is much simpler here.

Clean through the context menu

To do this, go to "My Computer", and then select the disk on which you installed a copy of the "Winds" unnecessary to you. Do not worry that the "distribution" will get the Windows that you are currently working under. We have already pointed out that in this case the system itself will not allow you to do this.

Next, click on the desired section of the right mouse button, and then select the item "Format" in the menu that appears. A dialog box will also appear in which to specify the file system type. Here everything depends on your preferences and requirements.

Selecting a file system

The main (and most reliable) is NTFS, but FAT32 can be used if necessary. We have already written about determining the size of a standard cluster. As for the type of formatting, everything here again depends on you.

But! You need to carefully understand how to format an NTFS hard disk. It should be noted that the reliability of this file system is based on the fact that it creates a fairly large recovery partition.

In the event that you are preparing a disk, the volume of which is off scale for a few hundred GB, this can be sacrificed. But you should not mark the disks with the volume of 40 GB or less. However, where now you can meet such "dinosaurs"? But if you need to prepare a hard disk for some old computer, then our recommendations will surely be useful to you.

If you select the "Quick (Clear TOC)" check box, the process will not take much time, but there will be a chance that the deleted files from the disk can be restored.

If you are going to sell this hard disk, we recommend that you uncheck this box. After clicking on the "Start" button, all data, including the operating system installed there, will be erased from the media. This may take some time, which will directly depend on both the power of your computer and the size of the disk.

We perform cleaning through Disk Management

This method is somewhat more reliable. Having understood how to format the hard disk of Windows 7 by this method, you must first click on the "Start" button, and in the left menu select the item "Control Panel". In the panel that opens, look for the "Administration" option.

In the dialog that appears, select the "Computer Management" shortcut. The window for managing the utility with the same name opens, in which we are interested in the item "Storage devices". In it, double-click on the "Disk Management" line.

After all these manipulations, a window with a list of installed storage devices will open. Select the disk you need in it, right-click on it. The same context menu will open, in which you should select the "Format" option. With further actions you have already been acquainted above.

Using the command line emulator

So we got to the most "advanced" method, which is used only by the most experienced users. So formatting a disk with Windows 7 is very convenient and fast, but you need to remember or write down all the commands that we will give you in the text below.

The best way is to simply copy them to the clipboard, and then paste it into the command line using the right mouse button ("Paste").

Once again, pay attention: carefully watch the letter of the disk that you need to format. An error can lead to the fact that you will lose data of considerable value (in any case, for you).

First, you need to run the command-line emulator with administrator rights. This is done simply. First, click the "Start" button, search for the "Search" field. In it, drive the CMD command, and then press the Enter key. A window with search results will open on the right side, in which you will have to right-click on the file with the same name, and select the option "Run as Administrator" in the context menu.

After deciding how to format a disk partition with the system or unnecessary data, first write the command command format Y: at the command prompt, where Y should be the letter of the partition you need. Once again we repeat: do not make a mistake! There have been cases when scattered users have lost all archives with family video.

After that, you need to press the Enter key, after which it will complete the formatting of the data. Important! When using the command-line emulation mode, no warnings about possible loss of important data in case of an error are not issued, so be extremely careful when entering commands!

A bit about flash drives

If an external disk asks you to format it before use, you can also use the command line. All the steps are exactly the same, but the main command will have a slightly different form: format Y: / Q. As in the previous case, the letter Y is the designation of your disk, which you need to change to the relevant value for your case, and the Q key stands for Quick, indicating fast formatting with a simple cleaning of the table of contents.

What is it for? The fact is that once again to fully format the flash drives should not be, because this once again reduces the number of cycles of rewriting.