How To Format Second Hard Drive Windows 10

While nigh external hard drives are already designed to work for Windows computers, at that place are times when yous need to reformat i. Y'all might want a drive that works with Macs and PCs, or possibly yous desire to partitioning it, which will split it up into ii different formats. Here's how to format an external hard drive for Windows x or partition information technology.

How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10

Note: Formatting your drive will erase all the existing files on it. So if your external difficult drive already has important files on information technology, make certain to dorsum them upwardly before proceeding.

Connect your external difficult drive to a Windows computer. If your external hard drive is working, your computer volition automatically find it, and the bulldoze will appear under Devices and Drives next to your internal drives in the This PC window. You tin too find it in the left sidebar of File Explorer.
Note: If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, exist sure to dorsum upwardly any files on information technology. Formatting your drive volition wipe out all the information in it.
Correct-click on the external hard drive and click Format.
Cull a format under File System. By default, Windows computers will choose NTFS (New Engineering File System) for you because that's the native Microsoft filing system. Just if you want the external hard drive to besides work on a Mac, you should cull exFAT.
Note: The exFAT file system only works on Mac ten.vi.5 or later, and Windows XP SP3 or later.
Check the Quick Format box, and click Showtime. Depending on the size of the bulldoze, and if in that location are files to be deleted in it, this can take a few to several minutes to finish.
Click OK when the Format Complete pop-upwardly screen appears.

Now y'all have a difficult drive formatted for Windows, merely what if yous wanted to use it with Mac computers likewise? 1 easy manner to accept a hard drive that works with Mac and Windows is by partitioning it. This means y'all're splitting the drive into 2 formats, one for Mac and one for PC. Here's how to do that:

Troubleshooting-Computer1

How to Partition an External Drive in Windows x

Open the Windows search box, type "diskmgmt.msc," and hit enter. The Windows Search Box is the magnifying button icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
Correct-click on your external difficult drive and select Compress Book. If this option is not available to you, reformat the bulldoze to NTFS and try again.
Enter an corporeality of space that you want to shrink your volume by. The remaining space will be displayed in megabytes.
Then click Shrink. This volition carve up the difficult bulldoze, with i part becoming unallocated space.
Right-click the unallocated space on your drive and select New Simple Volume.
Click Next.
Then indicate how large you want the partition to be. If you want to utilize the residue of the infinite, enter the maximum disk space indicated above information technology. Then click Next.
Adjacent, choose what drive letter you want to use. Messages that accept already been assigned to other drives will not be on this listing, and so don't worry if in that location are missing letters. Just choose among the drive letters still available.
Get to File System and choose a format. Windows will choose NTFS for yous because that's Microsoft's native filing system. But if you desire the external hard bulldoze to also work on a Mac, y'all should choose exFAT, which is an upgraded version of FAT32.
Annotation: The exFAT file organization only works on Mac ten.half-dozen.v or later, and Windows XP SP3 or later.
Bank check the Quick Format box, and click Next.
Finally, click Terminate. If a pop-up appears telling you lot to format the disk, click Format Deejay. Afterward that, the newly formatted disk volition open automatically.

Partition your external hard drive volition enable you to perform tasks in one section without affecting the residual of the bulldoze. If you want to know how to format a hard drive for Mac, bank check out our previous article here.

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