Data recovery after format: How to format a hard drive

Data recovery after format: How to format a hard drive

If you want to format your computer’s partition C, you should format it from other devices. As you are using this computer, you need to format it from a USB drive or Windows CD-ROM. If you need to format other partitions, you can format it from Disk management.

You need to back up your data on hard drive if you still need the data.

Use Disk management to format

1.      Open Disk Management. Press Windows key +R on keyboard to open the Disk Management. Or you can open it from the command prompts in Windows.

2.      Find the partition you need to format. If you cannot find the partition you need to format, you need to partition the drive first.

3.      After finding the partition, right click to choose Format. It will pops up “ Forma ‘your drive letter’”. Pay attention to choose the correct partition.

4.      Name the drive for easier recognition.

5.      Choose file system. You’d better choose NTFS in Windows.

6.      Modify the default allocation unit size if there is a need.

7.      Perform Quick format.

8.      Click next to finish the format

Formatting drive is not a perfect solution to wipe a hard drive. In some cases, they still can be recovered.

How to format Partition C?

The easiest way to format partition C is to reinstall your Windows.

1.      Back up all your files on partition C.

2.      Right-click your computer, click “Properties” to know your computer name, domain, and work-group settings.

3.      Insert the Windows installation disc into computer or run the installation program on USB drive.

4.      Restart your computer.

5.      Press any key to access to the formatting interface.

6.      Select your language and accept the licence terms. Select “Custom” and “drive options”

7.      Click “C” disk to format it.

8.      After formatting finished, reinstall system on C drive

9.      After re-installation finished, restore your backup of files to partition C

Backup is necessary before you start to format your hard drive or plan to clear your data on hard drive. If you lost data from formatting, you can use Hdata recovery software to to retrieve hard drive data.