Hard drive data recovery how to format the C drive?

Sometimes, we need to format the hard drive when the drive is filled or the computer runs very slow. But you will found that you cannot directly format the C drive. Your Windows system is installed on the C drive, so you cannot format the C drive within Windows. If you want to format any other hard drive partition, you should not run any files in this partition. As even if you have not run any programs or open any files, or you enter the safe mode, you still cannot perform the format for they have already take up the files on C drive.

Therefore, the only way to format your C drive is to format outside of the Windows.

There are several ways for you to format your C drive outside of Windows.

1. Format the C drive from the installation disc or a flash drive.

First, you need to boot your computer from the Windows installation disc. And then Click Install now on the screen. Click Drive options on the windows of Where do you want to install Windows?You can find the option of Format.

Choose the partition C and then click Format.Click OK to confirm the format.

Then the format is performed outside of the system.

2. Format from a system Repair disc

If you have no installation disc, you can also format from a system repair disc. If you have no repair disc, you can create one.

How to create a repair disc?

3. Format from Recovery Console

The recovery console is used to diagnostic and resolve system issues in the early versions of Windows. If you still use a Windows XP, you can try this method.

You need to boot from the Windows XP disc and enter the Recovery Console.

4. Format from a diagnostic tool

You can use a diagnostic tool to format your C drive.

5. Wipe your hard drive with a professional software

Use a data destruction software to format your C drive. It will permanently erase all the data on your C drive.

How to wipe a hard drive?

If you want to format other partitions, you can format them within the Windows

How to format other partitions?

You can format them in the Disk management.

Use Disk management to format

How to recover data from hard drive?

Before you format a hard drive partition, you should back up all the data first, or you will lost all your data. When you perform the format, you should choose the correct partition to format. In case you forgot to back up your data before a format, you can use a data recovery software to restore them. But if you perform a full format, the data recovery software doesn’t work. If you perform a quick format, you should use the software to recover your files.

How to use a data recovery software to retrieve lost files?