How long does it take to format a hard drive? What can you do if a hard drive takes forever to format? Now, you come to the right place. This post of MiniTool Partition Wizard will answer these questions in detail.
To clear up disk space or get a supported file system, sometimes people may need to format a hard drive. However, many of them are vexed that a hard drive takes forever to format. So, how long does it take to format a hard drive normally? Let’s get the answer from the following content.
How Long Does It Take to Format a Hard Drive
What Affects a Hard Drive Formatting Speed
To answer “how long does it take to format a hard drive”, it is necessary to understand what affects a hard drive formatting speed. There are 3 major factors: storage capacity, formatting type, and interface connection type. Usually, the more capacity a hard drive has, the longer time it will take to format.
A full format will take a longer time than a quick format. This is because a quick format only deletes data from a partition, and then rebuild the file system, volume label, and cluster. While a full format will fully erase data from a partition and make data unrecoverable.
The interface connection has an impact on formatting speed as well. For example, USB 2.0 is slower than the USB 3.0 interface, while USB 3.0 is slower than USB 3.1. If you want to format an external hard drive quickly, you should consider the interface connection type.
Quick Format VS Full Format [How to Choose For Data Security] This article explains quick format vs full format. It also touches upon how to recover data from quick formatted disk, and how to make data unrecoverable. Read More
How Long Does It Take to Format a 500GB Hard Drive (1TB/2TB/4TB)
Let’s check the 4 most frequently asked questions on this topic.
Note: We performed the following tests based on the same interface connection type (SCSI) and file system on Windows 10. In reality, the formatting time may be slightly different from the used space on your hard drive.
How Long Does It Take to Format a 500GB Hard Drive: According to a test, we find that a 500GB hard drive takes about 8 minutes to format when selecting Quick Format, while it takes about 25 minutes under the Full Format.
How Long Does It Take to Format a 1TB Hard Drive: Performing a Quick Format on a 1TB hard drive takes about 20 minutes. If you select the Full Format, it could take you up to 1 hour.
How Long Does It Take to Format a 2TB Hard Drive: Again, we perform a Quick Format on a 2TB hard drive, it can be done in about 30 minutes. However, a Full Format can take up to 3 hours. If this hard drive stores a chunk of data, it could take you a half day.
How Long Does It Take to Format a 4TB Hard Drive: To a certain degree, 4TB is a large hard disk that will take quite a long time to format. So, you’d better select a Quick Format if you want to save time. This is because fully formatting a 4TB hard drive can take you a whole day and even more.
How long does it take to format a hard drive? After reading the above information, I believe that you already have an answer. There is another question about disk formatting – a hard drive takes forever to format. Are you still troubled by this issue? Let’s keep reading the following part.
Hard Drive Takes Forever to Format?
Why a hard drive takes so long time to format? One of the most common reasons is that you forget to select the “Quick Format” option when formatting a large hard drive. In addition, bad sectors and an old interface connection are responsible for a hard drive takes forever to format.
How to Fix Hard Drive Takes Forever to Format
Solution 1. Format a Hard Drive via a Different Interface Connection
As mentioned above, a fast interface connection can boost the formatting process. If you encounter a problem with an external hard drive, you can try plugging it out from the computer, and then using an appropriate cable for connection such as USB 3.0.
Solution 2. Check Bad Sectors on the Hard Drive
If all the above methods fail to work, then you may have to check bad sectors on the hard drive. This is because bad sectors will take a long time to scan and format. Let’s run MiniTool Partition Wizard again to check bad sectors.
Step 1.In the main interface of this program, select the problematic hard disk and click on Surface Testfrom the left pane.
Step 2.Click on theStart Nowbutton in the pop-up window. After that, this tool will scan the whole disk immediately and show you the test result.
Step 3. If there are any blocks marked with red color, it indicates that there are bad sectors on the hard drive. Here you can run CHKDSK to shield bad sectors. To do so, typecmdin the search box, and then right-click theCommand Promptapp and selectRun as administrator.
Step 4.In the elevated command prompt, typechkdsk /f /rcommand and hitEnter. Then typeYto continue this operation.After that, this command will start scanning the hard drive and mark the bad sectors as unavailable.
After that, you should be able to format a hard drive more quickly.
How to Avoid the Long Formatting Time
In fact, you can take some alternatives to avoid the long formatting time.
Method 1. Choose a Quick Format
The first and simplest method is to perform a quick format. Windows has some built-in tools to help you format a hard drive: Disk Management, Diskpart, and File Explorer. Here we take Disk Management for example.
Tip: If your hard drive stuck on formatting, you can cancel the format first and then select a quick format.
Step 1. PressWin +Rkeys to open theRundialog box, and then inputdiskmgmt.mscin the text box and hit Enterto access Disk Management.
Step 2.In the pop-up window, right-click thehard drive you want to format and selectthe Formatoption from the submenu.
Step 3.Make sure you tick the checkbox of Perform a quick format, and then you can select the needed Files System and Allocation unit size. After that, click on theOKbutton to save the change.
Step 4. Click on OK to confirm this formatting.
If this method still takes you a long time to format a hard drive, you can move on to the following methods.
Method 2. Use an Alternative to Format Hard Drive
Although the Windows built-in tools can help you format a drive, they have some obvious limitations on formatting a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32. So, we recommend you use an effective formatting utility like MiniTool Partition Wizard. It is a multifunctional partition manager focusing on data recovery, hard drive optimization, hard drive repair, and file system conversions.
Step 1.Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to enter its main interface, and then select the drive that you want to format and click on Format Partition from the left pane.
Tip: This Format Partition feature functions the same as the Quick Format feature of the Disk Management tool.
Step 2.In the pop-up window, select a suitable file system type from the drop-down menu and click onOKto save the changes. Here you can also set its Partition Label and Cluster Size based on your needs.
Step 3.Click on theApplybutton to execute this formatting.
Method 3. Wipe a Hard Drive Instead of Formatting
If you still want to fully erase data on the hard drive, you can utilize the Wipe Disk feature on MiniTool Partition Wizard instead of performing a full format. Lets’ see how to do that:
Step 1. In the main interface, select the hard drive that you want to wipe and click on theWipe Diskfeature from the left pane.
Step 2.Select a wipe method from the list and click onOKto go on.The higher the wiping level you select, the higher the security level it will have.
Step 3.Click onApplyto execute this wiping.
Bonus Tip: Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive
As hinted above, formatting a hard drive will delete all the data on it. Sometimes, you just want to format a drive to a supported file system but forget to make a backup. What can you do in this situation? You can use a data recovery tool like MiniTool Partition Wizard to find lost data back.
This program can be used to restore data on many storage devices including hard drive, SD card, USB drive, and Pen drive. Here is a tutorial for you.
Step 1.In the main interface, right-click the formatted hard drive and selectData Recovery.
Step 2.Then you need to wait for this scan to complete. After the scan completes, tick the checkboxes next to the needed files and click on theSavebutton.
Step 3.Select a directory to save the needed files and click onOK. Here we recommend you save the recovered files to another drive. Otherwise, the recovered data could be overwritten.
How long does it take to format a 500GB hard drive? After reading this post, I believe that you have already known the answer. In addition, you can try the given solutions in the post if a hard drive takes forever to format.
If you have any opinions or ideas on this subject, you can write them down in the comment area. For any difficulties in using the MiniTool software, you can send us an email to[emailprotected].
How Long Does It Take to Format a 4TB External Hard Drive? A 4TB storage is double the size of 2TB; it'll also take almost double the time. Once again, it depends on your computer, connection type, cable interface, etc. If all are optimal, a full format might take around 15-20 minutes.
In reality, the formatting time may be slightly different from the used space on your hard drive. How Long Does It Take to Format a 500GB Hard Drive: According to a test, we find that a 500GB hard drive takes about 8 minutes to format when selecting Quick Format, while it takes about 25 minutes under the Full Format.
As estimated, to do a "full format" on a 1TB hard disk in Windows, it will take a long time, like 2- hours, and over a USB 2.0 connection, it may take a day! In contrast, to do a "quick" format is much faster, usually several minutes. Why is your hard drive taking forever to format?
Quick formats take a few seconds, whereas a normal format procedure can take several hours. The reason for this behavior is explained on Microsoft's website: "When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors.
Cancel a Format via File Explorer. If you initiate the formatting process via Windows File Explorer, you will see the formatting window and there is a "Cancel" button available for you in it. You can click the button to stop the formatting process.
NTFS is faster while using on internal hard drives as file system on Windows PC. While exFAT performs better on external storage devices such as USB or exernal hard drives. Also, exFAT has a better compatibility than NTFS and it works on both Windows and Mac computers.
Technically speaking, the answer is Yes, formatting your laptop would make it faster. It will clean your computer's hard drive and wipe all the cache files.
A full format erases any files from the disk, changes (or maintains) the file system and checks the disk for bad sectors. A full format takes significantly longer than a quick format.
Right-click the 2TB hard drive and select "Format Partition".Step 2.Choose "FAT32" in the File System drop-down menu. You can also change cluster size, and partition label on this window.
One terabyte gives you the option of storing roughly: 250,000 photos taken with a 12MP camera OR. 250 movies or 500 hours of HD video OR. 6.5 million document pages, commonly stored as Office files, PDFs, and presentations.
This process could take several minutes to several hours depending on how big the drive is and what method you choose. See the tip at the bottom of the page for information on a "simple" wipe using the format command in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
Usually, the time varies from 30 minutes to 3 hours. To elaborate, if you have more data on your PC, it occupies more storage and will take longer to clean. Further, it also depends on the type of storage, Primary or Secondary.
Quick format means that Windows just delete the data and change the file system. Unchecking this option means that you choose to perform full format, which will erase data, scan the partition for bad sectors, and change the file system.
Then the formatting process stops and the whole disk will show as offline. Next, right-click on that disk and choose Online to use the disk again. At last, you need to note that interrupting formatting hard drive/USB flash drive will leave the target drive as unformatted or RAW.
To make the formatting process quick, the drive is not checked for bad sectors. Anyone looking at the hard drive or storage device would not see any data and assume the drive is erased. Unfortunately, the files are actually still there and the volume could be re-built, allowing access to them again.
To remove all data from your phone, you can reset your phone to factory settings. Factory resets are also called “formatting” or “hard resets.” Important: You're using an older Android version.
Yes, you can fix a corrupted hard drive by formatting it with a new file system. Logical hard drive corruption is often caused by a damaged or corrupted file system. Formatting the partition will correct this.
If unchecked, your computer will carry out a Full Format, which is safe for HDDs but would cause your computer to perform a full read/write cycle, which can shorten the life an SSD.
Yes, you can recover files after format. When you format any storage device, all the old data will be erased. For most users, erasing data after formatting means that all data has disappeared forever. However, the old content actually remains on the drive until it's rewritten by new data.
Which format is the best for external hard drive? For Windows PC only, NTFS is the best for an external hard drive.For Windows and Mac, exFAT is the best format for an external hard dive.
If you want to use your external drive with Windows machines only, NTFS is a fine choice and probably the best option overall. However, if you need to use the drive beyond the confines of the modern Windows ecosystem, it's better to go with exFAT instead.
Formatting doesn't typically remove the infected files that are stored or have made a home in your device. Viruses have the potential to return back to your computer even though you have made solid formatting of your hard drive.
Erasing deletes the multimedia files stored on the memory card but can be recovered using photo recovery software. Formatting clears the directory of the data stored on the memory card and removes the fragmentation and once it is overwritten with new data, then it is quite difficult to retrieve the previous data.
If you are receiving the error 'You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it', it is because your drive has probably gone corrupt, developed bad sectors, infected by virus, etc. You need to stop using the drive and use the chkdsk command in Command Prompt to resolve the issue.
Either method will update Windows to the latest version. Restoring the factory settings will keep the operating system.Formatting the C drive will require reinstalling the operating system. You can perform data wiping according to your needs.
Assuming the transferring speed is 100MB/s, it will clone 1 gid in 10 seconds, 10 gig in 100 seconds, 1 TB in 10,000 seconds, and 2 TB in 20,000 seconds, which equals about five and a half hours.
This means that a 4TB SSD can contain videos that are about 2000 hours long. If each of the movies is 2 hours long, it means that this storage media can contain a whopping 1000 movies. Talking about pictures, a 4 TB storage media can contain about 1,240,000 photos.
As of May 2022, the largest hard drive is 22 TB (while SSDs can be much bigger at 100 TB, mainstream consumer SSDs cap at 8 TB). Smaller, 2.5-inch drives, are available at up to 2TB for laptops, and 5TB as external drives.
To recover a wiped hard drive that you don't have a backup of, you'll need to use a data recovery tool. Disk Drill is a specialized data recovery tool that can be used to recover data from your hard drive after your data has been lost or deleted.
Related links. To reset your PC, go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC > Get Started. Then, select Keep my files, choose cloud or local, change your settings, and set Restore preinstalled apps? to No.
Whatever the reason, unfortunately formatting an OS hard drive will also erase any operating system installed on the computer, including Windows. If your system drive is formatted, you'll have to reinstall Windows and then install your programs again.
The FAT32 file system cannot store individual files larger than 4 GB, while the NTFS file system can. Compared to FAT32, the NTFS file system has higher disk utilization and can manage disk space more effectively. The read and write speeds of NTFS are also faster than that of FAT32.
Overwrite format deletes file/directory entries by initializing file system parameters of the card (same as with Quick format) and erases all data by overwriting the user data area completely. Note that the Overwrite format takes more time to complete than the Quick format method.
When you purchase a 4TB drive, you may only get 3.6TB of usable storage. This is because the hard drive manufacturers' market drives in terms of decimal (base 10) capacity. In decimal notation, one megabyte (MB) is equal to 1,000,000 bytes, one gigabyte (GB) is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes, and so on.
Drives needing hardware recovery generally take about 7 to 10 days, but can take longer based on other factors below. Drive Size – Even if the drive is fully functional a 4Tb drive will take as much as 20 hours to perform a single scan, and a typical recovery may involve several scans to effectively find all files.
The 4TB WD Black boasts an impressive 256MB DRAM cache and is armed with a dual-core processor to push the limits of the medium. You get transfer speeds up to 202MB/s with the 4TB version.
In other words, 4TB HDD can be used in Windows in some conditions. According to Microsoft, to make an operating system fully support storage devices that have 2TB+ storage space, the device must be initialized by using GUID partition table (GPT). For a bootable system volume, the system firmware must use UEFI.
Your laptop or other gadgets won't run out of space if you have a hard disk. For storing large data or files you need 4TB and for a shorter one 1TB or 2TB is sufficient. We have listed all the options for you in this article. The prices of these External Hard disks are updated as of 20th Sep 2022.
One of the most common issues with 4TB hard drive is that the drive only shows 2TB in Disk Management. The unused space beyond 2TB displaying as unallocated space, which is unable to be used to create new simple volume nor allocate to other partitions on the drive.
Hard drives with 4TB capacity enable you to download games without restriction. Multiple games can be installed on the drive at the same time. Then you still have much space for storing other items. Hard drives larger than 3TB are possible, they are often reserved for high-end servers and networks.
Never Run Out Of Storage With The Best 4TB Hard Drives. Hard drives are one of the best solutions for all your gaming and storage needs. They're often cheaper and more reliable than their solid-state counterparts, making them a great value for the money.
Even if you turn on/off your system or let it idle long enough to power down the drive 20 times a day, 365 days a year, the Black drives should still last for over 40 years. The number of non-recoverable read errors per bits read is simply a metric of how often WD expects a read error to occur on the drive.
The Fastest External Hard Drive: Samsung T5. The Samsung T5 is the fastest external hard drive we've tested. CrystalDiskMark came back with incredible results, with a sequential read of 562.4 MB/s, a sequential write of 520 MB/s, a random read of 160.1 MB/s and a random write of 195.7 MB/s.
Technically speaking, the answer is Yes, formatting your laptop would make it faster. It will clean your computer's hard drive and wipe all the cache files. What's more, if you format your laptop and upgrade it to the latest version of Windows, it would bring you an even better result.
formatting your HDD will write zeroes throughout the drive, eliminating the junk clutter. specs are specs, formatting won't change the transfer rate of data; however, when you reload your OS and APPlication software, you will notice a slight improvement in performance.
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