This article shows you how to format a computer's primary hard drive. If it is the only hard drive in the device, you will not be able to format it completely (otherwise you would also delete the operating system), but you can partition it and format the newly created partition. It is possible to format a memory drive on both Windows and Mac systems. It should be noted that this procedure is different from the one normally used to format a secondary or external hard drive.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Windows systems
Step 1. Access the "Start" menu by clicking the icon
It features the Windows logo and is located in the lower left corner of the desktop. The "Start" menu window will appear on the left side of the screen.
Step 2. Type the keyword partitions into the "Start" menu
It will search your computer for the "Create and format hard disk partitions" system utility linked to the Windows "Disk Management" program.
Step 3. Select the item Create and format hard drive partitions
It is visible at the top of the "Start" menu.
If the item in question does not appear, try to perform a new search in the "Start" menu using the following keywords create and format hard disk partitions
Step 4. Select your computer's primary hard drive
Click the name that identifies the system's primary storage drive displayed at the bottom of the "Disk Management" window.
Step 5. Access the Action menu
It is located in the upper left of the "Disk Management" window. A small drop-down menu will appear.
Step 6. Choose the All Activities option
It is one of the items at the bottom of the menu. A small submenu will appear to the right of the latter.
Step 7. Select the Shrink Volume… option
It is located in the middle of the submenu that appeared. A new dialog will be displayed after the operating system completes the calculation of the free space available for resizing.
It may take Windows several minutes to determine the amount of total free space on the disk
Step 8. Determine the size of the new partition
Type the number of megabytes you want to allocate to the new partition using the "Specify the amount of space to shrink in MB" text field. This will tell the operating system what size the new partition will have after resizing.
- The maximum number of MB that you can allocate for the new volume is indicated in the "Reduction space available in MB" text field.
- A gigabyte (GB) is made up of precisely 1,024 megabytes (MB), so to create a 5 GB partition you will need to enter the following value 5120 in the field indicated.
Step 9. Press the Shrink button
It is located at the bottom of the page. This will reduce the size of the main partition of the hard drive to give you the ability to create a new volume.
This step will take several minutes to complete
Step 10. Select the new partition
Click the bar labeled "Unallocated" located to the right of the main hard drive box on your computer.
Step 11. Access the Action menu, then choose the option All activities.
A submenu will be displayed.
Step 12. Choose the item New Simple Volume…
It should be the first visible option in the menu that appears. A new dialog will appear.
Step 13. Press the Next button
It is located in the lower right part of the appeared window.
Step 14. Press the Next button again
This will accept the suggested size for the new partition and take you to the next screen.
Step 15. Choose the drive letter to assign to the new partition and press the Next button
You can choose the drive letter you prefer (for example "E") using the appropriate drop-down menu.
If you don't need to choose a custom drive letter, skip this step by pressing the button directly Come on.
Step 16. Format the new partition
Select the "Format this volume with the following settings" radio button, then go to the "File system" menu and select one of the following options:
- NTFS - it is the default file system format of all Windows systems and is only supported by this type of computer;
- FAT32 - it is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. However it has limits of use, that is, it is able to manage partitions with a maximum size of 32 GB and allows the storage of single files with a maximum size of 4 GB;
- exFAT - it is compatible with the most popular hardware platforms (Mac, Windows, console, etc.) and has no usage limits.
Step 17. Press the Next button
This will take you to the final summary and confirmation screen.
Step 18. Press the Finish button
It is located in the lower right part of the window. This way the partition will be created and formatted automatically. At the end of the process you can use it as if it were any memory unit through the "This PC" section of the "File Explorer" window.
Should you ever need to change the file system format of the new partition, you can do so by formatting it again using the Windows "File Explorer" or "Disk Utility" window on a Mac
Method 2 of 2: Mac
Step 1. Enter the Go menu
It is visible within the Mac menu bar located at the top of the screen.
If the menu Go is not visible on the screen, click an empty spot on the desktop or open a Finder window to make it visible.
Step 2. Choose the Utility option
It is one of the options located at the bottom of the menu Go.
Step 3. Double click on the Disk Utility icon
It features a small stylized hard drive and a stethoscope. The "Disk Utility" system window will appear.
Step 4. Select the primary hard drive
Click the Mac's main drive icon located in the upper left of the "Disk Utility" window in the "Internal" section.
Step 5. Go to the Partition tab
It is located at the top of the window.
Step 6. Press the + button
It is located below the pie chart showing hard drive occupancy. A set of options will be displayed to configure the new partition.
Step 7. Determine the final size the new memory unit will have
Select and drag one of the two anchor points visible within the pie chart and drag it clockwise or counterclockwise to change the partition size according to your needs.
Alternatively, you can enter the size in GB directly into the "Size:" text field
Step 8. Format the new partition
Access the drop-down menu Format:
to select the file system to assign to the new storage unit. You can choose one of the following options:
- Mac OS Extended (journaled) - this is the default file system for Macs and only works on these devices;
- Mac OS Extended (journaled, encrypted) - is the encrypted version of the basic file system for a Mac;
- Mac OS Extended (case sensitive, journaled) - it is the version of the default file system for Macs which, however, differentiates capital letters from lowercase ones (in this case the "file.txt" and "File.txt" files will be treated as two separate and distinct elements);
- Mac OS Extended (case sensitive, journaled, encrypted) - is the file system resulting from the combination of the three previous formats;
- MS-DOS (FAT) - it is a file system compatible with both Windows and Mac systems, however it has a limit in use since it is able to manage partitions with a maximum size of 4 GB;
- ExFAT - it is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems and has no usage limit.
Step 9. Press the Apply button
It is located in the lower right corner of the dialog box. The operating system will create the new partition based on the options chosen.
This process may take some time to complete, so please be patient
Step 10. Press the Finish button when prompted
The new memory unit is ready to be used. The partition will be visible within the Finder window as a hard drive.
