Free Format Hard Drive Partition with AOMEI Partition Assistant

Why do you need to format hard drive partition?

When you need to format hard drive partition, it generally means you encounter these situations:

1. Install a new disk/partition a hard drive: When you insert a new hard drive, Disk Management shows it as "unallocated" space, which File Explorer cannot access until it is initialized (MBR or GPT), partitioned, and formatted (NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc.). This process will check the drive for errors, and prepare it for use. If need, you can also create partitions for large drives, as it helps protect system files and manage data better.

2. Fix "file system is RAW" issue:  If the file system becomes corrupted or unrecognized, it shows as RAW; you must recover data first, then convert RAW to NTFS, FAT32, or another compatible file system by formatting.

3. Erase data: Some users may want to clean up the partition, disk, or storage medium, so formatting hard disk partitions can be a good idea. However, this action will not completely remove everything on it. Advanced techniques can help easily to recover lost data from a formatted hard drive. If you want to sell your disk or computer, you can choose to wipe a hard drive without deleting Windows.

If you want to free format partition, you can download AOMEI Partition Assistant and then move on to the next part and follow the easy steps.

How to format hard disk partitions with AOMEI software

Before doing HDD partition format, it is better to make some preparations. Everything on the HDD will be erased when you format it. Kindly please take some time to think about what you need to keep on your computer. Then you should backup the data on the hard drive before you format it. In most cases, if you prepare before the start to format hard drive partition you can archive and copy data off the hard drive. But sometimes this won't work if the virus damages the system. 

Format hard drive

First of all, you need to download the hard drive formatting software: Now, open AOMEI Partition Assistant and choose the partition that you would like to format in the main interface, then click the Format. In the dialog, enter the partition label, and select a file system of your desired such as FAT32 or NTFS. For the cluster size, AOMEI Partition Assistant will automatically determine the cluster size depending on selected file system and partition size, and the Default option is recommended.

Attentions: 1. Remember that format an existing drive will remove all information, so copy necessary files or information to other safe place first. 2. If you need to save some files bigger than 4GB to the partition, we recommend using NTFS to format owing to the 4GB limitation of FAT32. If you need, you can convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data. 3. This free partition manager has not only has the function of the format hard drive, but also the function of wiping partition, creating partition, deleting partition, etc. Therefore, if you have the partition problem, AOMEI Partition Assistant – hard drive formatting software will solve all the problems for you without any trouble. Pro Edition does well on resizing, creating, formatting partitions, and so on for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 32 both 32 and 64 bit.

Here, right click the hard drive, and you will get a menu like this:

After you click the Format, the following view will appear. If there are multiple partitions on your disk, and you only want to format one, you can click the targeted partition and choose the "Format Partition".

Then, please input the partition label and choose the file system (NTFS or FAT32). As for the cluster size, it’s better to use the default value. Too small or too big always has the drawback more or less.

★Tips:

Server partition magic tool performs a major role in managing disks/partitions for people who are running Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012.

Add unallocated space to system partition Windows 7/8/10/11: Moving unallocated space is available so that we could merge the unallocated space to system partition easily.

For enterprise users, you could enjoy AOMEI Partition Assistant Unlimited Edition/Technician Edition, which offers unlimited usage on unlimited computers within one company for saving money.

If you want to create partition on the HDD, you can directly run Create Partition provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant rather than using Disk Management.

Conclusion

No matter the reason to format a hard drive partition, AOMEI Partition Assistant provides the most effective and safe method for you. With it, you can not only create and format hard disk partitions, but also you can clone partitions, split partitions, recover lost partitions, and so on. Over years of disk using, if you find your C drive is full but the other drives are empty, you can use its App Mover, Allocate Free Space, Merge Partitions, etc., to solve the problem.