Formatting the hard drive via the command line: instruction. Windows 10 Command Line

One of the most common actions with hard disks of any type is their formatting. Situations where a logical partition or hard drive requires formatting can be quite a lot. But in some cases, in particular with regard to the system partition, you can not perform a standard procedure with Windows. In this case, the command line is used (we use Windows 10 for an example), which can be started by booting from removable media. Next, we will consider several options for carrying out the process of formatting both in the operating system environment and when booting from an optical disk or a conventional flash drive.

Formatting the hard drive via the command line: why is this needed?

First of all, it should be said that absolutely all specialists note the fact that it is better to format from the command console, in spite of the fact that the system itself has its own tool.

First, you can apply additional attributes to the basic formatting commands, which, in addition to carrying out the process itself, allow you to perform some additional actions. Secondly, the console becomes absolutely indispensable when reinstalling the operating system, fixing failures or when the hard disk does not open, for example due to damage, and the OS load becomes impossible. If critical failures occur on the hard drive, whether you want it or not, you can not do without full formatting. Some users try to use fast formatting, however, as practice shows, it is capable of only cleaning the table of contents and ultimately, when it is required to bring the hard drive to life, it turns out to be far from the best tool, unlike full formatting.

How is the Windows 10 command line invoked?

First, let's look at the console itself. In any Windows-system there are several simple ways.

The most used and most common method for Windows 10 is the use of a special "Run" menu, in which the command cmd is entered . In systems with a lower rank this option can also be applied, but in fact the link to the console was previously displayed directly in the main menu, which is called via the "Start" button, and in the tenth modification there is none.

An equally simple way is to enter a query in the search field, which can be called from the right-click menu on the "Start" button. Here, the console can be simply started, or you can start from the PCM on behalf of the administrator (working with the command line very often requires the presence of administrative rights, especially for any critical actions in relation to the hard drive and the operating system as a whole).

Finally, you can open the System32 directory in the standard "Explorer", located in the main system directory, and start the cmd.exe file with the methods shown above (opening the file as administrator).

When loading from removable media (installation, recovery discs or USB-media), in most cases the combination Shift + F10 is used.

Some nuances of access to disks

Immediately I want to draw the attention of all users at the moment, that even with the cmd.exe applet, it will not be possible to format the system partition. This is understandable. Well, the system can not format the drive on which it itself is located.

Therefore, the formatting of the hard disk via the Windows command line in the operating system environment is applied exclusively to logical partitions, removable media (including USB HDD), and to other hard disks installed on the computer (RIAD arrays). By the way, even if the operating system is not installed on drive C, but, for example, in partition D, the formatting of the first partition will still be unavailable, since at boot the primary BIOS system refers specifically to this partition, and on it there are any files necessary in any case To start the OS.

Standard logical partition formatting

Now directly about the process itself. Until we touch the system partition, and stop on the logical and additionally installed disks of any type.

After calling the console in the simplest case, the hard disk is formatted via the command line using the universal format command, after which a disk or a section with a colon is entered through a space. For example, the disk in the system is denoted by the letter H. The command in this case will look like "format h:".

This is the complete formatting of the hard drive via the command line, although you can use another method, which will be described in more detail below.

Additional attributes of the format command

As already mentioned, this command is good because additional attributes can be added to it, due to which some other actions can be performed.

See the full description of all possible options for executing the command in the console itself, if you enter the string format /? (This command opens a full list of add-ons). There are a lot of attributes, but one should note fast formatting with the input after the main command / q, formatting with the installation of a certain file system, for example fs: ntfs, as well as using the combination V: NAME to specify a volume label, where NAME is an arbitrary disk name Or section.

Download from removable media and call the command line

In situations where there are problems with access to the system partition, in particular, the hard disk does not open, its formatting is performed (if other troubleshooting methods do not help), it is possible exclusively from the command console that is started when booting from removable media. One of the most admired means is the start with the LiveCD.

Formatting the hard drive via the command line, access to which is done by the combination Shift + F10 (from the Recovery Console or without it), you can perform the same format command with the letter of the system partition and specify additional formatting parameters.

Using the diskpart tool

However, as most experts admit, it is not always appropriate to use a standard command. The other method is more effective, however, in most cases it is customary to use it for removable USB-devices, including for USB-hard drives, from which you need to make a boot device.

In this case, the formatting of the hard disk via the command line (diskpart) begins with the input of the same name command, after which the list disk is introduced to view all the drives installed in the system.

All disks are marked not by letters, but by numbers. Therefore, some users are faced with the problem of determining their device. The easiest way is to recognize it by the specified size (the same flash drive with a hard drive is clearly not confusing).

Next, to select a disk, use the select disk X command, where X is the number of the desired disk from the list provided. After that, the clean line clears the contents of the media, and then creates the primary partition (the create partition primary command). After that, the current partition (select partition 1) is again selected and activated (active). This command is not always used. When you initialize a disk that you do not plan to make bootable, you can skip it.

Only at this stage, directly formatting the active primary partition begins with the preferred file system, using the command format fs = ntfs (or fat32). If you want to make quick formatting, a quick line is added in the line with a space. But to achieve the optimal result, it should not be used.

At the end of the process, you need to assign a volume label to the partition (device). This is done by the assign command (the device letter will be assigned automatically). After that, you will only have to transfer the installation distribution files to the created drive.

Third-party utilities

If someone does not like these methods, any free program for formatting a hard disk such as Acronis Disk Director, HDD Low Level Format Tool, Partition Magic, Paragon Hard Disk Manager, etc., can be used to simplify the work.

However, all of them are equipped with a graphical interface, and we are not talking about using the command console, although many users will be much easier to work with such utilities. But, since in this case the use of the command line is considered, there is no sense to dwell on such utilities and their capabilities.

Conclusion

As a result, it remains to be said that the use of the console, which introduces specially provided for Windows-based systems, which, incidentally, migrated to these operating systems from DOS, is not particularly complicated. In addition, it is the command line that allows you to eliminate many more problems, which can not always be corrected with Windows tools and system tools. Yes, and the process of formatting on your head is higher than if it was run in the operating system environment. It's no secret that you can often see the appearance of a message that Windows for some reason can not finish formatting. And under the condition of working with the console, such problems do not arise almost never. And that's why in the majority of cases, all processes related to cleaning, formatting disks and partitions, preparing bootable media, etc. are recommended only with the use of standard console commands, and not other built-in tools of the system.