How to Format a Hard Drive with Windows 7

After buying a new hard drive, the next steps you have to do is to install this new hard drive on your Windows 7 operating system, and then format this new hard drive before you can use it. In this tutorial, I will show you how to format hard drive with Windows 7.

No matter what kind of hard drive (internal or external) you have, this tutorial will guide you to install and format a new hard drive in an easy way.

Install and Initialize a Hard Drive

Be sure you have installed and initialized the hard drive on your Windows 7 correctly. If you didn’t install the the hard drive or don’t know how to initialize a hard drive, here is a tutorial on how to install an internal hard disk drive on windows 7, that will help a lot.

Format a New Hard Drive

Step 1: Create a Simple Volume on a Disk

When you want to create a simple volume, the first step is to access the “Disk Management”, in the right pane, right click an unallocated disk for disk 2 ₍₁₎, and then select “New Simple Volume” ₍₂₎, a wizard opens.

Click “Next” button to continue. ₍₃₎

Step 2: Specify Volume Size

In this step, you have to specify volume size in MBs ₍₄₎. If you only want to create one partition for this hard drive, the field should equal the size listed as the “Maximum disk space”. If you want to create multiple partitions, just change the volume size and repeat the steps in this post.

The volume size can be whatever you specify, click “Next” button to continue. ₍₅₎

Step 3: Assign Drive Letter

Choose a drive letter for the partition ₍₆₎, and then Click “Next” ₍₇₎.

Choose “Format this volume with by following settings”, and then click “Next” ₍₈₎, and formatting begins. (It may take 30-60 minutes or more if you didn’t check the “Perform a quick format” checkbox.)

Click “Finish” the close the wizard. All processes have been completed, you can use the new hard drive on your Windows 7 PC now.