I talked to a geeksquad tech at best buy about purchasing the drive from best buy and having them replace the hard drive and install windows xp. Aside from the provided data sanitation methods, you are also allowed to create custom wiping method. One is using the easeus wiping tool to easily erase the partitions or disks in case you want to keep the system, the other is wiping hard drive and os together in the winpe environment with a bootable disk. How to format your hard drive using diskpart and command. Formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Typically, there is no reason to choose this option unless youre planning to use the external hard drive on a windows xp or earlier machine. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. This tutorial shows you how to wipe a hard drive in windows xp without cd before selling or replacing it in two ways. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. Its good for clearing everything off a secondary drive or when installing a new copy of windows. The bio recognized the hard drive as a 1tb, but xp refused to show it please help me.
How to format hard drive and reinstall windows xp full step. Old windows xp desktops and laptops can be turned into offline media centers for a family room, play computers for a childs bedroom, recipe holders for the kitchen, etc. Once the drive is formatted, the tool will send you a notification. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Up until about 2010 most consumer hard drives had 512 bytes per sector. Mar 19, 2020 to format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Press f8 to accept the windows xp licensing agreement. This guide is about boot partitions for the following windows versions. How to format hard drive and reinstall windows xp full. How to turn an old hard drive into an external drive. So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding. This will happen if you have several card readers, thumb drives or external hard drives attached. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. Today were going to go over how to format your hard drive and reinstall windows xp from scratch to get back that shiny new operating system feeling untainted by years of wear, tear and added and. Find your missing usb drive in windows xp howto geek. This seagate 1tb external hard drive offers easy plugandplay operation for instant connectivity, and the fabric exterior provides a touch of style. All wd hard drives now use 4k 4096 byte sectors and gpt guid partition table which is not compatible with windows xp 32bit. Todays usb flash drives are huge, but they come formatted with the fat32 limit of 4gb filesif you want to format them as.
How to properly format an advanced format harddrive for windows xp is easier than you might think. New external hard drive that works with windows xp external. Rightclick on the drive rightclick on the drive you wish to format and select format from the dropdown menu. Feb 19, 2015 3tb or 4tb hard drivehdd in windows xp. Diskpart format command that runs on command prompt is used for formatting internal and external storage mediums of hard drives. In this tutorial, we explain how you can format a hard drive using the command prompt. This tutorial shows you how to wipe a hard drive in windows xp without. Windows xp setup unable to format hard disk january 2009. Best external hard drives for windows xp and windows 7. Increase laptop storage capacity with this seagate 1tb external hard drive. Easiest way to format 500gb external hdd to fat32 in windows 78 10. Connect your external hard drive to a windows computer.
When it comes to changing hard drive or giving away a computer, simply deleting files or formatting the hard drive is not enough to ensure privacy, as recovery software makes it possible to recover lost data easily. The command is available in all windows operating systems like windows 10, 8 7, vista, xp and in other older versions too. Oct 12, 2019 easiest way to format 500gb external hdd to fat32 in windows 78 10. It is not possible to format your primary drive probably labeled c in windows xp, as it contains windows itself. To reformat a hard drive with windows xp, insert windows cd and restart your computer. The first step in repurposing a windows xp computer is to reformat the hard drive, and this is how it should be done. It can read fat32 drives larger than 32gb, but it cannot format over 32gb. As complicated as that might sound, its not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of windows. However, you might do two passes via this method just to be safe.
This will not work if the hard drive you are trying to wipe is your only hard drive or your main hard drive in which your current windows xp is installed. Formatting an external hard drive how do i format an external hard drive in windows xp. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. To create a partition or volume the two terms are often used interchangeably on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended. Have you ever plugged in a usb drive or any external device with a hard drive and wondered why you cannot see it in my computer. Being different from deleting a partition or formatting a hard drive, to wipe a. Dec 16, 2011 this tutorial explains in a detailed 15 easy stepbystep procedure on how to format your hard drive partition and reinstall windows xp using the windows xp installation cd. Installing windows xp on external hard drive with windows. How to format an external hard drive with wd quick. If your external hard drive is working, your computer will. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a microsoft agent or microsoft employee and that the phone number is an official microsoft global customer service number. Top 10 free hard drivedisk data wipe software for windows 1087. Once the process begins, it cannot be undone and all the data on the drive will be lost.
When the process is complete, youll see your new drive. Create and format a hard disk partition windows help. Format external driveusb exfat in windows 10 in simple steps. I was using the my passport ultra on my desktop of with windows xp and i just purchased another one of the same external drive and find out it doesnt work with xp anymore. Formatting an external hard drive microsoft community. Hello i want to buy a western digital my book external hard drive in 3. Using windows xp professional sp3, how do i reformat an external. How to wipe a hard drive windows xp without cd easeus. Set to boot the pc from removable devices bootable usb disk or. This tutorial will show you how to easily format a hard disk in windows xp. Something about xp being compatible with nonadvanced format and that the newer hard drives are advanced format. Are there any external drives that work with windows xp. Reformatting a drive means taking the drive back to a blank piece of hardware. Here you can free download the best fat32 format tool for windows 1088.
Once disk management is open, users must select the drive that is to be formatted. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Microsoft windows xp home edition microsoft windows xp professional microsoft windows server 2003 datacenter edition. This can be very useful for clearing everything off a secondary drive or when installing a fresh copy of windows. Reformatting a drive in windows vista is usually a pretty simple process, which might lull you into the misconception that reformatting a drive in windows vista is no big deal. If you want to format a hard drive while using or installing windows xp, youve come to the right place. If you are reading this youre probably already aware of what an advanced format hard drive is, but if not, here is the cliff note version. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. I have really worked hard on this post as i do in every other post so i have one request. This is a detailed tutorial on how to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, and windows xp. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
An advanced format drive must be specially prepared to work with older operating systems, and. So if you have important files and data stored on the external hard drive, please make backups beforehand. But the memory run out is a problem as all programs are getting bigger and everything else as. Aug 31, 2016 which is not compatible with windows xp 32bit which only supports mbr partition style so, you can reformat the hard drive to mbr ntfs,fat32 etc and it will be compatible with xp 32bit but, realize mbr only supports a maximum capacity of 2tb windows xp 64bit, windows 7,8,10 all compatible with gpt and mbr. Aug 17, 2018 when you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as external storage media. Developed by microsoft, this modern file system is optimized for situations where the ntfs file system is not a feasible solution, and the file size limit of the standard fat32 file system is unacceptable. Choose format option choose to format the drive either in ntfs or fat 32 and then either a full or quick format. He said that windows xp is not compatible with any of the hard drives they have in the store.
Jan 15, 2020 this free tool can be used to partition a hard drive in windows vista, windows xp, windows 7, windows 8, and windows 10. The feature still exists on your systems and the command prompt utility should help you find and use it to do the task. Give your volume a name, click next, and wait for the format process to finish. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. This is to be able to store data in that partition, and assign a name and a. Easiest way to format 500gb external hdd to fat32 in windows. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Todays usb flash drives are huge, but they come formatted with the fat32 limit of 4gb filesif you want to format them as ntfs under windows xp youll need a little trick. How to reformat a hard drive in windows xp to get rid of a virus. To partition a hard drive in windows means to section off a part of it and make that part available to the operating system. This article illustrates the easiest way on how to format 500gb seagatewd passport external usb hard drive or internal hdd to fat32 in windows 1087. Jan 14, 2020 diskpart format command that runs on command prompt is used for formatting internal and external storage mediums of hard drives. Format a usb drive as ntfs in windows xp lifehacker. Well then, how to format an external hard drive to exfat with windows pc. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Windows xp can reformat secondary drives, but it cant format the drive on which is installed. This tutorial explains how to format external hard driveusb flash drive exfat in windows 10.
More than likely the cause is that windows renamed the drive to a letter that is already in use. Windows support for hard disks that are larger than 2 tb. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. If youve ever tried to format an external hard drive larger than 32gb to fat32 in windows, you will have seen that your operating system. Thus, youd better use the windows machine to format your external hard drive. Try it to format your external hard drive, usb flash drive or sd card to fat32 beyond 32gb limit. Please keep in mind that using wd quick formatter to format external hard drive is an irreversible process.
Now that you know which format to choose, its time to learn how to format external hard drive for mac. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt tom. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Lacie rugged mini 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Select your hard drive in the drives list, rightclick on it, and select format. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. If youve tried everything you can to fix it, the only option left may be to format the drive and reinstall windows or. Western digital brings you this portable drive featuring usb. Boot partition guide for windows xp, vista, 7, 8, 10. Mar 12, 2020 this tutorial shows you how to wipe a hard drive in windows xp without cd before selling or replacing it in two ways. The portable design slips comfortably into pockets, and usb 3. Why your new hard drive isnt showing up in windows and. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as external storage media. Fat32 and exfat are the supported file system for sony ps4, so if youre now using ntfs in windows 10, its time to the format job or just convert it fat32 without data loss.
Windows xp with 1tb hard drive microsoft community. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. A full format is recommended as a quick format does not. The only way to have a 3tb or 4tb hard drive compatible with windows xp 32bit is to purchase an old hard drive made around 2009 that uses 512 byte emulation and supports mbr master boot record partitions. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and.
The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. You need to format a hard drive if you plan on using it in windows. Drive fixer how to troubleshoot and fix external drive not detected issues on windows 10 if your pc isnt detecting an external hard drive, use this guide to resolve the issue. Reformat hard drive with windows xp whitecanyon software. Jan 17, 2019 starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. If youve tried everything you can to fix it, the only option left may be to format the drive and reinstall windows or another operating. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.
In my computer, rightclick the drive, select format and hit format. How to format a hard drive with windows xp howcast. Use a usb flash drive or your computers recordable disk drive to back up your files. This page focuses on methods to completely wiping a hard drive or computer on windows 1087. How to format your hard drive using diskpart and command prompt. You can either use this disk wipe freeware in windows 1087vista xp to wipe external hard drive clean, or boot from it via usb or cddvd to erase computer hard drive with os. A full format is recommended as a quick format does not completely erase the drive. Windows, macos, and linux can all read and write to fat32. Nov, 2019 a single pass of zeros to a hard drive should prevent all software based file recovery programs from extracting information from the drive, which the format command in windows 7 and vista does by default. New external hard drive that works with windows xp wd community. A windows boot partition is the partition that holds the necess. To format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive. You need an external hard drive and here i give you a list of some of the best picks.
For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Tech support scams are an industrywide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. New external hard drive that works with windows xp. Aug 24, 2016 how to format the c drive on a windows xp sp2. Formatting your hard drive is a relatively easy and very effective way to ensure that your computer runs fast and works reliably. This can be very useful for clearing everything off a secondary drive or. How to use the format command to write zeros to a hard drive. Your computer should automatically boot from the cd to the windows setup main menu. May 02, 2015 old windows xp desktops and laptops can be turned into offline media centers for a family room, play computers for a childs bedroom, recipe holders for the kitchen, etc. The saleman told me i have to be ware that many 1tb hard drives do not work with windows xp, and he helped me to pick one that works with xp. If youre using an imac, you may find the usb ports on the side of your keyboard or on the back of the imacs screen. Sep 26, 2018 however, if you want to use the mac to format your external hard drive to exfat, youll face the problem that the external hard drive may not be compatible with the windows pc.
Most of the time, the part of the hard drive is the entire usable space, but creating multiple partitions on a hard drive is also possible so that you can store backup files in one partition, movies in another, etc. However, if you want to use the mac to format your external hard drive to exfat, youll face the problem that the external hard drive may not be compatible with the windows pc. With its allsided functions, we can realize almost all hard drive partition management, both for internal hard drives and external hard drives. Therere many ways to format hard drive, or external hard drive, we can do it in file explorer, windows disk management and third party disk managing software. Last but not least the option to reformat the hard drive by following. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Click on start click on the start or windows icon button and then. Insert the drives usb cable into one of the thin, rectangular slots in your computers casing. How to format an external hard drive for windows 10. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp lifewire. Format drive to exfat in windows 10 so it is readandwrite in mac os as well. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers.
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