how to format external hard drive windows vista

In this case, you can employ a data recovery tool - FonePaw Data Recovery (opens new window) to retrieve the files that you need from the formatted hard drive or try it to export the data to PC as a backup. That means it's possible to recover data from a formatted hard drive, when no data has been backed up before. Fortunately, formatting a hard drive does not actually erase all the data from the hard drive, and a space will be marked to store the file data that can be written by Windows before being overwritten. Then hit the Start button to begin formatting your hard drive.Formatting a hard drive is to wipe out all the data from the drive so as to set up a new file system for the operating system to write and read. Quick Format – it’s suggested to leave this unticked if you’re not sure. Volume label – enter a name for your hard drive. Here are the options you need to specify before you can format the drive:ĭrive – choose your external hard drive from this dropdown menu.Īllocation unit size – leave it to the default values. Double-click on the downloaded file and the tool will launch.Connect your external hard drive to your computer if it isn’t already.Head over to the FAT32Format website and download the tool to your computer.A great thing about this tool is that you don’t even need to install it on your computer – it just works straight out of the box. This method is ideal for those of you who don’t like running commands and prefer tools with a simple user interface.

The FAT32Format utility has been around for a long time and it lets you quickly format any of your external hard drives to FAT32. Use FAT32Format To Format Your External Hard Drives

In most cases, it should only take a few minutes but it also depends on how large your external hard drive is.

It’ll format the drive to FAT32 and let you know when it’s done.

How to format external hard drive windows vista