How to Format a Hard Drive Using the Command Prompt

STEP 1:    Open Command Prompt As Administrator

Opening the command prompt.

Search for command prompt, right click and run as Administrator.S

STEP 2:    Use Diskpart

Using diskpart

Once command line is open, type 'diskpart' and press Enter.

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STEP 3:    Type List Disk

Using list disk

The above command will open a Diskpart window. In this window, type 'list disk' and press Enter. It will list all the available drives.

STEP 4:    Select the Drive to Format

Formatting a drive.

Now type 'select disk (disk number)' as shown above. Specify the drive number which needs to be formatted.

STEP 5:    Clean the Disk

Using the clean function.

In this step, type 'clean'. This command will permanent delete all files and folders, and successfully clean up the disk.

STEP 6:    Create Partition Primary

Creating primary partition.

To make the drive again accessible, type 'create partition primary'.

STEP 7:    Format the Drive

Now format the drive with FAT or NTFS file system. Type 'format fs=ntfs' and press Enter.

STEP 8:    Assign a Drive Letter

To assign a drive letter, you can type 'assign' as shown below.