How to Format M.2 SSD on Desktop & Laptop?

About M.2 SSD

M.2 SSDs are solid-state drives with a compact form factor. It is meant to provide high-performance storage in tiny, power-constrained devices and adheres to a computer industry specification. An M.2 SSD takes up significantly less space and consumes far less power than a normal SATA or Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) interface solid-state drive in a laptop.

M.2 SSDs can read and write at substantially quicker speeds than SATA or SAS SSDs due to NVMe requirements. M.2 SSD also supports PCIe, SATA, USB 3.0, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. If a customer gets a laptop with an M.2 interface, they will have several peripheral gear configuration possibilities.

Why need to format M.2 SSD?

Formatting will erase all data on the disk, many users would format a drive for data cleaning. And there are other motives to format M.2 SSD:

• Change/Choose a file system
NTFS and FAT32 have different characteristics. Some devices only support NTFS and some only FAT32. You can change or choose file system for different devices via formatting your M.2 SSD.

• Make the drive compatible with a specific OS
Just like different devices need a different file system, the operating system also needs a compatible file system to run on the PC.

• Fix some disk errors
Some disk issues can be repaired by formatting the disk.

How to format M.2 SSD on Windows PC

In this part, we’ll show 3 ways to format your M.2 SSD, all are simple to follow. However, there’s something we need to inform you of before we start.

Method 1. Format New M.2 SSD in Disk Management

A new M.2 SSD will show as unallocated in Disk Management, you’ll enter “New Simple Volume” to format it.

Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon, and select "Disk Management" from the list to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Then, your drive will act as an unallocated space. Right-click and select "New Simple Volume".

Step 3. On the New Simple Volume wizard, click "Next", change the volume size and click "Next".

Step 4. Assign the drive letter and click "Next".

Step 5. Select File system and click "Next". Once the format is finished, you should confirm the message.

Step 6. Click "Finish" to close Disk Management.

Method 2. Format M.2 SSD in CMD

If you’re familiar with CMD, you can use commands to format M.2 SSD.

Step 1. Open the Command Prompt by clicking on the Start menu and typing "cmd" into the search bar.

Step 2. In the CMD window, type "diskpart" and press Enter. This will open the DiskPart utility, which allows you to manage disks and partitions from the command line.

Step 3. Type the following commands and press “Enter” after each.

list disk
select disk X (x stands for your drive letter)
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign

Method 3. Format M.2 SSD via disk formatter

Another tool is a third-party disk management tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, a free disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP system.

This tool can quickly format disks and partitions without typing any commands. And if you want to change the file system between NTFS and FAT32, you can choose the “NTFS and FAT32 Converter” function which can convert the file system without formatting, and your data will be safe. In addition, it also supports Ext4/Ext3/Ext2/exFAT, you can use this tool to format other devices for your specific needs. What's more, it can format disk over 2TB into FAT32.

Note: If you’re running Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/2003, please turn to the Server Edition.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard on Windows PC. Right-click the M.2 SSD and select “Format Partition”.

Step 2. Choose a file system from the given options and click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the pending operation.

To sum up

This is how to format M.2 SSD on your Windows computer. AOMEI Partition Assistant is a handy disk manager. If you upgrade to the Professional Edition, you can unlock all practical functions. It can clone disk, migrate OS, move installed programs and folders, allocate free space, etc.