[Stepwise] How to Format a Hard Drive Windows 11 Easily?

Formatting your hard drive is essential for maintaining the health and performance of your computer. Whether you want to clean up old data, remove a virus, or prepare your hard drive for a fresh installation of Windows 11, formatting is the first step. In this article, we'll guide you through the process of formatting your hard drive on Windows 11 in 5 different ways.

5 ways on how to format a hard drive Windows 11

Since formatting a hard drive on Windows 11 brings so many benefits, how to do it? This is not something you should worry about since there are 5 common ways out there to format disk on Windows 11.

Way 1. Use Disk Management for Windows 11 drive format

Disk Management is the most common program utility Windows users take to perform various operations to manage disks, including disk formatting, volume shrinking, and volume expansion.

Step 1. On the desktop, right-click “This PC” and select “Manage”.

Step 2. Select “Disk Management” under the “Storage” tab.

Step 3. Right-click on the target volume and select “Format”.

Step 4. Check the name of the drive in the "Volume label" setting to confirm its accuracy.

Step 5. Select the NTFS option under the "File System" setting and check the "Perform a quick format" option. An additional option for enabling file and folder compression can be selected to save space while storing files.

Step 6. Clicking the OK button initiates the process. Following these instructions, any primary data on the existing partition will be erased as it is reformatted.

Way 2. Format hard drive Windows 11 with File Explorer

Windows 11 File Explorer has the capability to format external hard drives because it includes a built-in disk management utility that enables users to partition, format, and manage their connected storage devices. So, here you can learn how to format external hard drive Windows 11 with this utility.

Step 1. Right-click on “This PC” and select “Open”.

Step 2. Right-click on the target disk and select “Format”.

Step 3. Select a File system, change the Allocation unit size, and give a Volume label as you like.

Step 4. To initiate the disk or drive formatting process, click on the “Start” button located at the bottom of the screen. Then, select “OK” in the prompt window to confirm the formatting process, and then wait for it to complete.

Way 3. Run Command Prompt for Windows 11 drive format

Command Prompt allows for more advanced functionality, customization, and faster processing of formatting. However, its complexity, risk of irreversible errors that cause partition loss, and limited support may make it less user-friendly and more challenging for inexperienced users. Therefore, this method is recommended mainly for experienced users comfortable with its risks and capabilities.

Step 1. In the search box on the lower left of the desktop, type “cmd” and select “Run as administrator”.

Step 2. In the popup Command Prompt window, type “diskpart” and hit “ENTER” to the diskpart.exe tool.

Step 3. Then, input the following command.

Now, the disk formatting process is completed.

But there are some limits of Windows built-in program utilities that you should pay attention to:

If the disk is over 32GB, it can’t be formatted into FAT32.

An internal hard drive can’t be formatted into exFAT.

A drive that becomes RAW or write-protected and whose file system is corrupted can’t be formatted successfully

Way 4. Utilize Windows 11 Storage Settings to format

Step 1: Click the Start icon in the Windows 11 taskbar or press the Start key on the keyboard.

Step 2: From the Start menu, select "Settings".

Step 3: In the left panel of the Settings menu, select "System".

Step 4: Roll down on the right panel and find "Storage" from the list. Click on it.

Step 5: Select the target hard drive and click the "Properties" button.

Step 6: Click on the "Format" button, confirm a label for the drive, choose the desired "File System" setting (NTFS option), and click on "Format".

Way 5. Employ an powerful tool to format hard drive Windows 11 easily and quickly

If you need to format a disk larger than 32GB into FAT32, or encounter problems like the drive turning RAW, write-protected, or corrupted that are difficult for users to overcome these issues and fix them manually, the above mentioned methods might not provide satisfactory results.

So, a more reliable option is to use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which has user-friendly features that make it much easier to resolve such problems quickly and efficiently. It is a powerful tool that provides users with an easy way to manage their disks and partitions, which can be compatible with various versions of Windows, so users can always rely on it to get the job done.

With just a few clicks, this application can format disks into any file system of your choice, including NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, 3, or 4. Moreover, it offers additional features such as disk cleaning and hard drive wiping, making it a comprehensive solution for all your disk management needs.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click on the partition/hard drive you want to format and select “Format Partition”.

Step 2. Select a file system. Here, we take NTFS as an example. Then, hit “OK”

Step 3. Hit “Apply” on the upper left of the main interface to start the disk formatting process.

Then the selected drive/disk will be formatted into the target file system.

Bonus tip: Convert FAT32 to NTFS on Windows 11 without data loss

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a multifunctional tool that can fix many computer issues. You can directly upgrade to the Professional Edition if you want to convert FAT32 to NTFS without data loss. This edition of the software is more advanced than the standard edition, offering users increased capabilities to manage their Windows PC.

The "NTFS to FAT32 Converter" feature offers several benefits:

Step 1. Run the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click the partition you want to convert and choose “Convert”> “Convert to NTFS/FAT32”.

Step 2. Click "OK" in the mini window.

Step 3. Click “Apply” to execute the operations.

Conclusion

Today we share 5 practical and useful ways how to format a hard drive Windows 11. If the Windows built-in tools cannot work as your expectations, it is time to choose a reliable tool to help you, like AOMEI Partition Assistant.

This versatile software can provide many other advanced features once you upgrade to the Professional Edition, such as migrating OS to SSD, converting MBR/GPT for Windows 11 upgrading, and cloning disks. All of these allow you to solve computer issues on your own rather than spending extra time and energy on asking for an expert. Furthermore, there is also the Server Edition that Windows Server users can choose.