How to see a drive’s file system on windows 10

Windows 10 supports several file systems out-of-the-box. Some of them are legacy and exist mostly for backward compatibility, others are modern and not widely used. This article explains different methods you can use to find which file system your drives are formatted with.

When you format your internal disk drive or a flash drive, you prepare it for use as a storage media by your operating system. During this process, the file system is created. All information stored on the drive or partition will be removed.

Windows 10 supports FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and ReFS file systems without using extra software.

They have different features and properties. For instance, FAT and FAT32 are legacy file systems. FAT supports a maximum volume size of 4 GB, FAT32 supports 32 GB. FAT file systems also have limitations on maximum file size. NTFS is the only file system which supports file compression and encryption and has advanced features.

There are a number of methods you can use to find the file system used on your drives. Here is how.

To find File System of a drive in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open File Explorer and go to the This PC folder.
2. Right-click on the drive and select Properties in the context menu.
3. In Properties, you will see the file system of the drive on the General tab.

This method is the easiest and the fastest.

Alternatively, you can use the Diskpart tool, Disk Management, or PowerShell.

Benj Edwards is an Associate Editor for How-To Geek. For over 15 years, he has written about technology and tech history for sites such as The Atlantic, Fast Company, PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, Ars Technica, and Wired. In 2005, he created Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to tech history. He also created The Culture of Tech podcast and regularly contributes to the Retronauts retrogaming podcast. Read more.

When you’re elbow-deep in drive configuration or troubleshooting, you often need to know what file system a certain drive on your Windows 10 PC uses. For example, if you’re using the new Windows File Recovery tool, it’s essential info. Here’s how to find it.

First, open “File Explorer.” Locate the drive whose file system you’d like to determine and right-click on it. In the menu that pops up, select “Properties.”

In the “Properties” window that appears, you’ll see the file system type in the “General” tab just below the drive name and type. It’s listed just after the “File system:” label.

Usually, Windows 10 uses NTFS (short for “NT File System”) as its default file system, but sometimes you’ll see other file systems, such as FAT32 (a legacy Windows 9x-era file system) or exFAT, which USB removable drives often use for maximum compatibility between platforms, such as Macs and PCs.

By Alisa | Follow | Last Updated August 21, 2020

Summary :

What is the file system of the drive? This post teaches you how to check the file system of a drive with detailed steps. To manage your hard drive partitions or recover data from hard drive, MiniTool Software offers professional data recovery program, disk partition manager, etc.

The file system is the way that different devices utilize to store and organize your information. Windows 10 supports FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS file system. Different files systems have different properties. For instance, FAT32 has the maximum file size of 32GB, while exFAT supports file size larger than 32GB.

If you want to find out what file system a hard drive is formatted with, you can easily check it by following the simple steps below.

How to See Drive’s File System on Windows 10

Step 1. You can click This PC on your Windows 10 computer to open File Explorer.

Step 2. Next right-click the target drive and choose Properties.

Step 3. Under General tab in Properties window, you can check the file system of the drive.

How to Check File System in Windows 10 with Diskpart

Step 1. You can press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open elevated Command Prompt.

Step 2. Type diskpart in Command Prompt, and press Enter to open DiskPart command-line utility.

Step 3. In Diskpart, type list volume, and press Enter to get the list of all drives. Then you can find the file system of each drive detected by your Windows 10 computer.

How to Check File System of Hard Drive with Disk Management

Step 1. You can press Windows + X, and select Disk Management to open Disk Management on Windows 10.

Step 2. Then you can see the file system of a drive under File System column.

See Drive File System with PowerShell

Step 1. Press Windows + X, and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) to open PowerShell utility on Windows 10.

Step 2. In PowerShell, you can type get-volume command and press Enter. Then you can check the file system type of each hard drive detected by your computer.

Best Free Hard Drive Partition Manager

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a top free disk partition manager compatible with Windows. It lets you easily create/resize/extend/format/wipe partitions to better manage your disk storage space. It allows you to easily convert file system format like convert FAT to NTFS. You can also use it to check and fix file system errors, check bad sectors on selected partition. Disk Benchmark and Space Analyzer feature are also included in this tool. Extremely easy-to-use tool.

How to Recover Data from Corrupt Hard Drive

Hard drive could be corrupt or damaged and data on it may be at risk. If some data on your hard drive is missing, you can try a top free data recovery software like MiniTool Power Data Recovery to easily restore data.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery lets you easily recover lost or deleted files from computer internal or external hard drive, for example, external HDD/SSD, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, and more. Only in 3 simple steps, you can recover your data. Connect the drive to your computer and use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to scan the drive, then check needed files after scanning and click Save button to store recovered files to a new destination.

For Mac users, a top Mac data recovery software is needed.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Alisa is a professional English editor with 4-year experience. She loves writing and focuses on sharing detailed solutions and thoughts for computer problems, data recovery & backup, digital gadgets, tech news, etc. Through her articles, users can always easily get related problems solved and find what they want. In spare time, she likes basketball, badminton, tennis, cycling, running, and singing. She is very funny and energetic in life, and always brings friends lots of laughs.

HFS+ — одна из основных файловых систем macOS.
Когда вы работаете на ПК с операционной системой Windows и хотите открыть или редактировать файлы на флэш-накопителях, HDD или SSD носителях, отформатированных в macOS, вам необходим HFS+ for Windows от Paragon Software.

Стабильная работа

Отказоустойчивая работоспособность на совместимых аппаратных и программных системах как для общих, так и специализированных приложений.

Безопасность данных

Защита целостности данных и предотвращение случайных повреждений и возможной потери данных

Устойчивая производительность

Стабильная производительность, сбалансированное и эффективное управление потоком данных, предотвращение перегруженности.

Эффективность

Экономное использование ресурсов процессора, памяти, диска.

Работа в привычном окружении

Готов к работе сразу после установки – ранее недоступный внешний диск, отформатированный в Apple HFS+, появляется в Проводнике и теперь можно спокойно обмениваться файлами между Windows ПК и Mac. И делать это на максимально возможной скорости для вашего оборудования. К примеру, мы успешно копировали много гигабайтные файлы через порт USB 2.0 со средней скоростью 40 Мб/c.

Paragon HFS+ запускается автоматически при старте системы и ненавязчиво работает в фоновом режиме. Таким образом диски, отформатированные в macOS, будут доступны так же, как обычные диски Windows.

Paragon HFS+ стоит 790 рублей, при этом есть десятидневный бесплатный период. Для разового извлечения данных с диска macOS этого времени достаточно. А если вы постоянно хотите работать с файлами macOS с компьютера Windows, то 790 рублей — это вполне разумная сумма.

Windows mainly uses two different file systems called FAT32 and NTFS. If you ever need, follow the below steps to determine your drive’s file system.

There is a wide range of file systems and Windows supports all most all major file systems like FAT, exFAT, FAT32, NTFS, and ReFS. Each file system has its own rules, advantages, and disadvantages. For example, the NTFS file system, designed by Microsoft for Windows, supports file encryption, file compression, file permissions, and even supports for ridiculous file sizes. In contrast to that, the FAT32 file system can only support files up to 4GB in size and there is no support for file permissions, encryption, or compression.

Though you don’t have to worry about this, for the most part, depending on your use case it is important to use the correct file system. For example, if you want to control who can access files on a particular drive then you need to use the NTFS file system.

So, if you are ever in doubt, here are some simple ways to find the file system of any drive or partition in Windows.

Note: Windows installation drive will always be an NTFS file system. That’s because Windows automatically formats the drive in the NTFS file system for the installation drive. You cannot install Windows on other file systems.

There are several different ways to find the drive file system. I will show the three most popular and easy to ways. Follow the one you are comfortable with.

1] Drive Properties

The easiest way to determine the drive file system is to use take a look at the drive properties window. It shows the file system name front and center.

1. First, open the File Explorer by pressing the Win + E keyboard shortcut.

2. After opening the File Explorer, click on the “This PC” option appearing on the left panel. This action will take to the drive listing screen.

3. In this window, you will see your drives or partitions under the “Devices and Drives” section. Right-click on the drive of your choice and select the “Properties” option.

4. In the properties window, you will see the drive file system right next to the “File System” heading. In my case, the drive is NTFS.

2] Disk Management Tool

The other way is to use the built-in disk management tool. The advantage of this tool is that it shows the file systems of all the drives at the same time.

1. First, open the start menu, search for “Create and format hard disk partitions” in the start menu and click on the result. Alternatively, press Win + X and select the “Disk Management” option.

2. The above action will open the Disk Management tool. Once opened, you can see the file systems of all the drives under the “File System” column.

3] Command to Find Drive File System

If you like or don’t mind the Command Prompt, you can use the command-line utility called Diskpart to see the drive file system. All you have to do is list the volumes and just like the Disk Management tool, it will show the file systems of all the drives.

1. Open the start menu, search for “diskpart” and click on the result. This action will open the Diskpart command-line tool. If you see a UAC (User Access Control) prompt, click “Yes”.

2. In the command-line tool, execute the below command. You can see the File System right under the “Fs” column.

3. Once you are done, type exit and the diskpart tool will be closed.

That is all. It is that simple to find the drive file system in Windows 10.

Hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, do check out how to delete files securely so they are not recoverable.

Formatting a drive for use with Windows 7, 8 & 10

Before you can use a new external drive with Windows 7, 8 or 10 you will need to format it (unless it states it is pre-formatted). There are several options which we will look at to help you choose the correct format for you and show you how to ready the disk for use.

Step 1. Right-Click on the Windows icon in the lower left-hand corner and select Disk Management

Step 2. If you wish to format or remove files from an existing hard drive right-click on the Disk Drive you wish to ‘clean’ and select Delete Volume. If you have a new Disk Drive you wish to format – go directly to step 3.

Step 3. Select the Disk Drive you wish to format and right click and select New Simple Volume.

Step 4. A Wizard will open to help you complete this process, so click Next.

Step 5. The Wizard will ask you to Specify Volume Size, this will be automatically set based on the Disk Drive size so click Next.

Step 6. The Wizard will then ask you to Assign a Drive Letter or Path – use the default suggested by the Wizard if you are unsure, then click Next.

Step 7. The Wizard will then ask you to Format Partition. Select NTFS if you wish to use the Disk Drive for Windows only computers to read, or select exFAT for cross platform compatibility (with Mac and Other operating Systems). You can also identify and name the drive to something more meaningful by changing the Volume Label – like “My Videos and Images”, then click Next.

Step 8. You are now ready to begin formatting your new Disk Drive, click Finish to start formatting.

Once the above process is complete your drive will be ready to use.

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For more information on Drive File System Compatibility across different Operating Systems Click HERE

To See how to format a new drive for use with an Apple Mac click HERE

BUY YOURSELF AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!

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FORMAT YOUR NEW HARD DRIVE FOR USE!

See how to format a new drive for use with an Apple Mac click HERE

На момент поставки устройство Backup Plus Desktop отформатировано как NTFS для совместимости с Windows. Поэтому можно подключить Backup Plus Desktop к ПК Windows без необходимости форматировать жесткий диск. Однако NTFS не полностью поддерживается компьютерами Mac. Если требуется подключать Backup Plus Desktop к компьютерам Mac и Windows, можно установить специальную программу, которая позволяет считывать и записывать файлы на жесткий диск NTFS с компьютера Mac так же, как на компьютере Windows. Подробная информация и инструкции приведены на странице поддержки драйвера Paragon для Mac.

Если вы хотите использовать Backup Plus Desktop только с компьютерами Mac, рекомендуется использовать стандартный формат операционной системы Mac — HFS+ (с журналированием).

Дополнительная информация о файловых системах жесткого диска и инструкции по форматированию жестких дисков приведены в разделе ниже.

О форматах файловой системы

NTFS: поскольку это оригинальная файловая система Windows, запись на тома NTFS может выполняться компьютерами Windows. Mac OS может считывать и записывать на тома NTFS с помощью драйвера Paragon для Windows.
Mac OS Extended (HFS+): стандартная файловая система жесткого диска на Mac. Пользователи Windows могут считывать и записывать данные на жесткие диски HFS+ (с журналированием), установив драйвер Paragon для Mac.
exFAT: общая совместимость с Mac и Windows. Файловая система exFAT не поддерживает журналирование и может быть более восприимчива к повреждению данных при появлении ошибок или при неправильном отключении диска от компьютера.
FAT32: совместима с Mac и Windows. Однако FAT32 является устаревшей файловой системой, разработанной для жестких дисков малой емкости и не рекомендуется для современных жестких дисков или операционных систем. Раздел FAT32 может достигать 32 ГБ при форматировании Windows.

Как выбрать формат файловой системы

Используйте NTFS, если:

…устройство хранения подключается к компьютеру Windows. Установите драйвер Paragon для Mac для поддержки Mac.

Используйте HFS+, если:

…устройство хранения подключается к компьютеру Mac. Установите драйвер Paragon для Windows для поддержки Windows.

Можно использовать exFAT, если:

…устройство хранения данных подключается и к компьютеру Mac, и к компьютеру Windows. Однако Seagate рекомендует устанавливать драйвер Paragon при использовании жесткого диска на различных операционных системах.

Используйте FAT32, если:

…устройство хранения подключено к более старым компьютерам Windows и Mac. FAT32 не рекомендуется использовать на современных операционных системах и компьютерах.

Инструкции по форматированию

Указанные ниже действия помогут отформатировать и разбить на разделы устройство хранения.

Windows

1. Убедитесь, что устройство хранения подключено к компьютеру.
2. Перейдите к разделу «Поиск» и наберите diskmgmt.msc. В результатах поиска дважды щелкните на «Управление диском».
3. В списке устройств хранения в середине окна управления дисками найдите устройство Seagate.
4. Раздел должен быть доступен для форматирования. Если в настоящее время он отформатирован, щелкните правой кнопкой мыши на разделе, а затем выберите «Удалить».
5. Чтобы создать новый раздел, щелкните правой кнопкой на томе и выберите «Новый простойтом». Следуйте инструкциям на экране, когда появится мастер создания нового простого тома.

1. Убедитесь, что устройство хранения подключено к компьютеру.
2. Выберите «Выполнить» > «Служебные программы» в строке меню Finder.
3. В папке служебных программ дважды щелкните на «Программа управления дисками». Все подключенные устройства хранения, разделы или образы дисков показаны в левой колонке.
4. Выберите накопитель Seagate в левой колонке.
5. Выберите вкладку «Стереть».
6. Выберите формат в выпадающем окне.
7. Введите имя тома.
8. Нажмите «Стереть» и подтвердите выбор во всплывающем окне.

Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Руководство пользователя

Ever run out of storage space and start wondering if it would be possible to take a crowbar to your new unibody MacBook Pro to pry it open and put another hard drive in? Neither do I. However, it is frustrating that you have to sacrifice storage space because you spent the extra money to get a solid-state drive instead of the cheaper hard disk drive. So you figured, “Fine, I’ll just get an external hard drive. I’ll store my media files on it while keeping the internal hard drive clear for apps and the OS.” While browsing the Internet for your external hard drive, you come across weird terms like NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and exFAT. While your instinct may be to find out if it’s some weird slang acronym defined only on scandalous websites, you may fare better by reading below.

If you own a Windows computer, the hard drive in your system is probably running the NTFS format, which stands for New Technology File System. While the “New” is originally referring to the year 1993, it has since been improved and updated over the years. NTFS has limits for file size and partition that are theoretically so large, you probably don’t have to worry about them in this lifetime. It also has a lot of additional features, such as security permissions to files and folders, hard links, a change journal, and more.

While NTFS works natively with Windows, it doesn’t work quite as well with other operating systems. By default, Macs can only read NTFS and not write to them. Some versions of Linux can write to NTFS while others may not. The Sony PS3 and the PS4 do not support NTFS at all. Even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 failed to support NTFS, but Microsoft finally included NTFS support with the Xbox One. It is recommended to use NTFS if you’re working strictly with Windows computers.

As mentioned before, Macs can only read NTFS-formatted hard drives by default. If you want to write to NTFS formatted hard drives in Mac OS X, you’re going to need the help of a third-party driver. However, if you’re working primarily with Mac computers, you’re probably better off using HFS+, which stands for Hierarchical File System, for native support. Also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended, HFS+ is an improvement on the HFS file system, by supporting larger files and using Unicode for naming files. HFS+ also has optional journaled features for improved data reliability.

While HFS+ formatted hard drives work great with Macs, they can’t really be used with other operating systems and devices, since it is a proprietary system from Apple. Windows computers won’t even recognize the drive if you plug it in and good luck trying to use them for other devices, such as gaming consoles. You should use HFS+ if you’re planning on using only Mac computers.

If you have a Mac running macOS High Sierra or later, you may consider converting your external solid-state drive or USB flash drive to Apple File System (APFS). Optimized for all-flash storage, APFS features strong encryption, space sharing, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals.

Please note that APFS can only be read by Macs running macOS High Sierra or later. If you intend to use your external drive to move files between Macs running different OS versions, it is recommended that you format your drive in HFS+ instead.

FAT32

FAT32 is old, like Windows 95 old. Originally created to replace FAT16 (File Allocation Table), it has since been used because it is compatible with modern and older systems. While its compatibility is a result of its long history, its file size and partition limitations really show its age. Even the filenames in FAT32 are limited, only allowing up to 8 characters.

In FAT32, a single file can only be as big as 4GB, which is very restricting considering the typical uncompressed Blu-ray movie can be anywhere from 20 to 40GB (and even more for an uncompressed UHD Blu-ray movie). FAT32 is mostly used for moving files to older systems, as well as other devices, such as the Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and more.

exFAT

While it may sound like a weight-loss product from a late-night infomercial, exFAT is a hard drive format that feels like the child of NTFS and FAT32. exFAT takes everything that’s good about FAT32, such as compatibility and ease of use, and leaves out everything that was bad about it, like the 4GB file size limit. Instead, it has very large file and partition size limits, like NTFS, but none of its extra features to maintain its svelte file system.

exFAT is a good option if you work often with Windows and Mac computers. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you don’t have to constantly back up and reformat each time. Linux is also supported, but you will need to install appropriate software to take full advantage of it. Unfortunately, exFAT didn’t inherit all of FAT32’s legacy in compatibility because it may not work with older devices, such as the PS3 and Xbox 360. It does work on the current-gen of gaming consoles, such as the PS4 and the Xbox One.

Reformat

While it’s convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so you’re not limited to your initial choice. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on Mac and Windows.

DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting.

How to Reformat in Mac

Step 1: Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to your Mac.

Step 2: If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.

Step 3: In the Finder, choose Go, then choose Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open. (Alternatively, you can search in Spotlight for Disk Utility and click on it.)

Step 4: Launch Disk Utility.

Step 5: Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.

Step 6: Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.

Step 7: From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended.

Step 8: Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.

Step 9: Click the Erase button.

How to Reformat in Windows

Step 1: Plug your external hard drive into your computer.

Step 2: If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.

Step 3: Open Windows Explorer, click the “Computer” section in the sidebar and find your drive.

Step 4: Right-click on the drive and choose “Format.”

Step 5: Under “File System,” choose the file system you want to use.

Step 6: Check the “Quick Format” box.

Step 7: Name your hard drive under “Volume Label.”

Step 8: Click “Start” to format the drive.

Step 9: After you’re done, don’t forget to remove the external hard drive safely before unplugging.

Which hard drive format do you use? Do you use one that’s not listed above? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t forget to check out all of the hard drives and storage solutions available at B&H. Click this link for more information.

It’s #HardDriveWeek! Share a photo of your current hard drive + tag for a chance to win a new Hard Drive Prize Pack!

A drive can be used on any type of computer – PC or Mac. But in order for the computer and drive to communicate with one another, the drive has to be formatted with the correct file system. This article explains about file systems and provides instruction to format a drive on Windows and Mac.

Newer Seagate and LaCie branded external drives come preformatted with the exFAT file system, which allows it to be used on both Mac and Windows without reformatting the drive. Some older drives are formatted specifically for PCs, some specifically for Macs, and some of them have special utilities allowing them to work between both without having to reformat the drive.

It’s important to choose the file system that suits your need. If you want to optimise performance, it’s best to format the drive using the computer’s native file system. If you need to use your drive on both Mac and PC then it’s best to format exFAT. If you are not sure which one is best for you the File System Format Comparisions highlights the main difference between file systems.

Seagate internal drives are not preformatted and must be formatted before use. Drives that will be bootable are formatted during the process of installing the operating system (ie, Windows or macOS).

If you have a drive that is formatted for a different type of computer or a drive that is not preformatted, you will need to format the drive before you can use it. Also, drives that will be used for storage need to be formatted.

WARNING! Formatting erases all data on the drive. Be sure to make a copy of any data you might need later.

For instructions on how to format a drive, please click on the link of your computer’s Operating System:

Windows 10

Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).

Initialize a drive

Note: You typically only need to initialize a drive if the drive is new. If you cannot find an uninitialized drive in Disk Management, skip the following steps and try to partition your device.

Press the Windows key + R, type compmgmt.msc, and click Run to open Computer Management.

Navigate to Disk Management.

When prompted to, initialize your disk(s). If you are running Windows ® 7 or later and are using a drive larger than 2TB, initialize the disk(s) with GPT. If you are running an earlier version of Windows, initialize the disk(s) with MBR. For more information, visit the following FAQ:

Click OK.

Create a partition in a drive

Note: The following steps create an NTFS partition that uses the entire drive space. To use a different file system, select a different option in step 6.

Right-click Unallocated or RAW volume, and select New Simple Volume.

In the New Partition Wizard, click Next.

Select Primary partition.

Leave the partition size set to default, and click Next.

Assign a drive letter or leave it set to the default, and click Next.

Enter the following settings to format the partition:

• In the File System field, enter NTFS.
• Set the Allocation unit size to Default.
• In the Volume label field, enter .
• Select the Perform a quick format check box.
• Clear the Enable file and folder compression check box.

1. Click Next >Finish.

The new drive should appear in Windows Explorer.

Mac OS

Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, HFS+, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).

Initialize a drive

Mac OSX detects a drive that needs to be initialized and automatically prompts you to initialize the drive. If you are prompted to initialize the drive, click Initialize. If you are not prompted to initialize the drive and you cannot find the drive in Finder, you will need to create a partition on the drive.

Create a partition on a drive

Note: The following steps create an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) partition that uses the entire drive space.

To create a partition on a new drive, complete the following:

Open Finder.

Navigate to Applications and click Utilities.

Open Disk Utility.

Select the new drive and click the Partition tab.

Click Options and verify that it is set to GUID Partition Table.

Enter a name for the partition.

Click Partition.

The drive should now be accessible in Finder.

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Formatting a USB flash drive is something most computer users don’t think about, as most drives are formatted out of the box, and ready for most use cases. However, there may come a time when you need to completely erase all the data on your drive, or you need to make the drive compatible with a different type of computer than it has already been formatted for. If you’ve ever experienced a flash drive working on a PC but not on a Mac or vice-versa, it’s the drive’s formatting that’s usually the culprit. This article will explain how to format your drive in Windows and on a Mac OS 10+.

What is formatting?

Formatting is the process of prepping a storage device, like a hard drive, solid-state drive, flash drive etc, to store information. It creates a filing system that organises your data and allows you to maximise the space for your files. It’s typical to format a drive when a new operating system is going to be used or additional space is required.

There are two types of formatting on a USB drive:

• Quick format: Deletes the file system table and the root folder. This option is frequently used for USB flash drives to efficiently free up the available space to transfer or store other files. It’s not the most secure way to delete your files because the data may still be recoverable with data recovery tools.
• Full format: Will scan for bad sectors and write zeros in all sectors, which deletes all data permanently. This action can take a long time, depending on the capacity of the drive.

File system options

When formatting your drive, it’s important to understand the different formatting options available for your ideal use. The file systems most commonly used in USB flash drives are:

• FAT32 is a common option you’ll hear because it’s recognised by both Mac and Windows operating systems, but it offers no security and caps files at 4GB in size. Most USB flash drives will have a FAT32 file system out-of-box. It is the most compatible file system for older/modern computers (PC and Mac) plus gaming consoles and other devices with a USB port.
• exFAT is the ideal file system for USB flash drives. It doesn’t have the 4GB file size limit and it’s compatible with most Windows and Mac operating systems. Older operating systems might require an update to properly read and write to a USB drive with an exFAT file system.
• NTFS format is the file system Windows likes to use by default for internal drives running the operating system or used as a secondary storage drive. It has a much larger max file size but is read-only on Mac OS X (unless you install a third party NTFS read/write utility).
• Mac OS Extended is the native solution for Mac users and has the max file size of any of them. Only use this option if the drive will only be used in Mac OS. Windows will not detect this file system without a third party utility.

There are tools available to use NTFS on a Mac (Fuse) or HFS on PC (HFSExplorer). Another option, for those who use both Windows and Mac OS regularly, is to partition your hard drive and have a portion of the drive formatted for each OS.

Formatting drives in Windows

Formatting Drives on a Mac OS 10+

1. Insert a USB drive into your USB port.
2. Launch “Disk Utility” (from Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).
3. Select the USB drive from the list on the left.
4. Select “Erase” at the top.
5. Type in a “Name” for the drive, then select a “Format” (file system).
6. Select “Erase”.
7. Once complete, select “Done”.
8. Once format is finished, the USB flash drive will be all set to store documents, pictures, videos, and other files on the removable drive.

Conclusion

Formatting a USB flash drive can be a great option if you want to erase your data from the flash drive with speed and efficiency or if you want to use your flash drive on a different operating system. By taking the time to format your USB drive, this will ultimately optimise its performance.

I’d like to run a disk verification program to ensure that there’s nothing wrong with the file system on my Windows 10 laptop. Does Windows still include any tools for this task?

With the rise of solid state drives (SSD) it turns out that a lot of the problems and hiccups associated with physical drives and drive layout have gone away, or at least show up quite a bit less frequently than back in the old days. Of course, the really old days included hard drives with megabytes of storage that were the size of a washing machine, but that’s another story! Used to be that smart Windows users would also de-frag their drives with regularity too, a process that sounds a lot less military than it sounds. That too seems to have become less important too, muchly due to better file system designs that have been released.

Still it’s smart to occasionally check on the status of your drive because whether you’re paranoid like me and do hourly cloud backups or you’re just trusting in your system, things can go wrong and as Ben Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In the digital age, that cure sometimes is “oh well, you lost that data”, so that’s even more dire!

Having said that, Windows doesn’t have the tools it used to so it’s a bit of jumping through hoops to find what you seek. Let’s start by simply going to File Manager and right-clicking on the hard drive in question:

NOTE: As with any disk maintenance effort, please start by quitting all your other programs and ensuring that nothing is writing to disk during this process. Online Web browsers are probably fine, but games, programs like MS Office, all those are a bit of an unnecessary risk that just complicate the job.

Now, off the context-menu shown above choose “Properties“. Then click on the “Tools” tab, as shown:

Ah, look, you can still defragment your drive! Let’s start there, because if you have SSD drives like me, it’s going to be a big fat dead end. Click on “Optimize“.

“Optimization not available” tells you that you’ve got an SSD and it’s unnecessary. That’s just how it is and it’s a good thing!

Back up instead and click on the “Check” button instead.

You can use the Scan drive link here, but let’s do something a bit more fun, let’s go into the administrative interface and use what a power Windows users would utilize instead. Just take your time and type carefully.

To start, do a Cortana / Win10 Start search for “cmd”:

You want the Command Prompt, but don’t just click the icon because you want to run it as an administrator so you can access the drive. To do that, click on the “Run as administrator” link on the right. Now you’ll have something that looks like a regular command prompt (so 1980’s, eh?) like this:

Now you’ll want to carefully type exactly what I have shown above:

sfc /verifyonly

Notice where I have a space (after sfc) and where I don’t (between ‘verify’ and ‘only’). Type in exactly what I’ve shown and you’ll be using the Windows administrator System File Checker (SFC) tool:

Have patience, this will take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to fully dig into your file system and verify everything, and at times it will look frozen. Mine “stuck” at 76% for a few minutes before proceeding. Finally, though, if you’re in good shape, you’ll end with this:

If you do have some problems, I recommend you back out of this window by closing Command Prompt then go back to Tools and let the Check / Analyze tool analyze what’s going on. If you’re an expert Windows user, SFC has additional repair steps it can take, but they can also mess up your drivers, etc, so you don’t want to use those without some level of expertise. Good luck!

Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Windows since it was an amazing layer atop the command line and an optional setting. Please check out my extensive Windows help area for lots and lots of useful tutorials!

Many guides for creating a bootable USB, such as those used to run PC recovery software or to update the system BIOS or install Windows require that the USB stick to be used is first formatted as FAT32. This guide will show you how to identify the current filesystem used by your device.

What is a filesystem?

While when you browse the contents of a disk, CD, or USB, you see files and folders, that information must be encoded into a sequence of zeros and ones in order to be stored on a physical disk. There are a number of different formats that can be used, depending on the purpose and platform – for example, Windows PCs use one format while Macs and iPhones use another.

The two primary filesystems in use in the Windows world are FAT32 and NTFS. While NTFS is almost always the filesystem uses for local drives (notably the main C:\ drive for the Windows installation), USB disks and external hard drives can be formatted in FAT32, NTFS, or even exFat.

Identifying the filesystem in use

To identify the filesystem used by a drive is fairly straightforward:

1. Make sure the drive is connected to your PC and shows up under My Computer or This PC:
   
2. Right-click on the drive in question, and choose Properties from the resulting menu:
   
3. The filesystem is displayed in the dialog that pops up:
   

Changing to a different filesystem

If you need to switch your drive to a different filesystem, follow the instructions on our guide Changing the USB Filesystem.

When you’re elbow-deep in drive configuration or troubleshooting, you often need to know what file system a certain drive on your Windows 10 PC uses. For example, if you’re using the new Windows File Recovery tool, it’s essential info. Here’s how to find it.

First, open “File Explorer.” Locate the drive whose file system you’d like to determine and right-click on it. In the menu that pops up, select “Properties.”

In the “Properties” window that appears, you’ll see the file system type in the “General” tab just below the drive name and type. It’s listed just after the “File system:” label.

Usually, Windows 10 uses NTFS (short for “NT File System”) as its default file system, but sometimes you’ll see other file systems, such as FAT32 (a legacy Windows 9x-era file system) or exFAT, which USB removable drives often use for maximum compatibility between platforms, such as Macs and PCs.

С помощью Дисковой утилиты можно отформатировать внешний диск таким образом, чтобы он поддерживался как компьютерами на базе Microsoft Windows, так и компьютерами Mac. Это может потребоваться, например, если у Вас есть флеш-накопитель для хранения файлов данных, которые Вам нужно использовать на компьютере Mac дома и на компьютере Windows в школе или библиотеке.

ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ. При форматировании с диска или из тома стираются все файлы. Перед форматированием сохраните все нужные файлы в другом томе.

В приложении «Дисковая утилита» на компьютере Mac выберите пункт меню «Вид» > «Показывать все устройства».

Если Дисковая утилита еще не открыта, нажмите значок Launchpad в панели Dock, введите «Дисковая утилита» в поле поиска, затем нажмите значок Дисковой утилиты .

В боковом меню выберите диск, который нужно отформатировать для использования с компьютерами Windows.

Нажмите кнопку «Стереть» на панели инструментов.

В диалоговом окне «Стереть» нажмите всплывающее меню «Схема», затем выберите схему разделов.

Нажмите всплывающее меню «Формат», затем выберите один из следующих вариантов.

MS-DOS (FAT). Выбирайте этот формат для дисков размером 32 ГБ или меньше.

ExFAT. Выбирайте этот формат для дисков размером более 32 ГБ.

Введите имя тома.

Максимальная длина имени тома составляет одиннадцать символов.

MacDrive 10 Standard and Pro

We went back to the whiteboard and have made MacDrive even easier to use. From seeing the Mac disks mounted to your computer to activating and deactivating, everything from top-to-bottom is easier.

MacDrive 10 features an all-new Disk Management Window that displays any Mac disk mounted to your PC and gives you quick access to all of MacDrive’s features. Open and edit your Mac files from the new window or access them direct from Windows Explorer or your favorite software.

MacDrive has built a reputation on blazing quick read/write speeds and unparalleled data security. MacDrive 10 extends the lead with even faster access and more protection for your Mac disks and files.

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Easily access all of MacDrive’s disk management tools through the new interface.

See all your mounted Mac disks on one screen for quick access.

Help is just a click away. Access information and tools to help with troublesome Mac disks.

Check the status of your MacDrive license and access activate and deactivate options right from the MacDrive main screen.

Quickly see Mac-formatted disks mounted to your computer. You can also access your Mac disks through Windows Explorer.

MacDrive 10.5 + APFS (Beta)

MacDrive 10.5 features beta read support for disks using Apple’s new APFS file system.

Access Mac disks like any other disk.

Simple and easy to use, MacDrive is recognized as the leader for accessing Mac disks from Windows for almost 20 years.

Once you plug in your Mac disk, behind the scenes MacDrive works to seamlessly enable Windows understand HFS+ disks and allow you to read and write to the disk. There is nothing to launch or learn, MacDrive makes Mac disks look and act just like any other disk on your PC.

MacDrive also includes powerful features that enable you to create and partition Mac disks direct from your PC. And in the event that your Mac disks is having a problem, our robust repair feature can fix basic disk issues. From floppies to hard drives, MacDrive can handle almost any disk you toss at it.

Just as important as access your data is protecting it. Since 1996 we’ve built a reputation on being a rock solid cross-platform utility. And we take the mission seriously. Unlike other software companies, our job doesn’t end when you purchase. MacDrive includes FREE tech support and some of the fastest response times to phone and email support questions in the industry.

And we stand behind our software, if MacDrive doesn’t perform as promised, we offer a 30-day money back guarantee.

What our customers are saying…

I have recently tried your product (recommended by an Instructor) and was very impressed! Your software recovered a drive that I thought was gone forever. I am interested in your product at the academic level as the school uses Macs and I have PC at home.

MacDrive was so unlike downloadable trials of software that I’ve used in the past because it actually worked. It did what it said it would do with almost zero input from me, other than plugging in my drive and activating the software trial.

Your software works great and I have used it in the the past while working with other company’s that had both Windows and Mac computers and no network.

Mounting an external hard drive isn’t as simple as plugging it in. We’ll walk you through some decisions you need to make.

What you need to know about using an external drive on Mac or Windows.

Formatting an external drive forces you to make some important decisions that will affect how and where you can use the drive, including whether it’ll work on a PC, Mac or both. Manufacturers often advertise that their external drives are compatible with both operating systems out of the box, and for the most part, that’s accurate. However, it’s more nuanced than that.

For example, if you’re going to use an external drive to back up your PC, you’ll want to make sure it uses NTFS formatting. Or if you want to back up your Mac, you’re going to want that drive formatted in either HFS+ or AFPS, depending on which version of MacOS you’re using.

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See? It can get confusing and complicated fast. Don’t fret, though. Below I’ll break down the different formats, and explain their place in the grand scheme of external drives.

What are the different format types?

The file format standard you use for your external drive will depend on how you plan on using the drive. But before I can dig into what makes sense when, look over this quick rundown of the different standards and which OS each one is compatible with.

exFAT (Extensible FIle Allocation Table)

• Natively read/write exFAT on Windows and MacOS

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Natively read/write NTFS on Windows.
• Full NTFS support on Mac requires paid third-party app

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)

• Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS up to Mac OS X Sierra
• Required for local Time Machine backups

APFS (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)

• Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS High Sierra and newer
• Required for local Time Machine backups

It comes down to which OS are you going to use the drive with?

So isn’t exFAT the obvious solution?

According to the list above, formatting your hard drive to exFAT so that you can read and write on either a PC or Mac seems like the obvious solution. And if that’s how you plan on using your drive, then you’re right — exFAT is the way to go. However, if you plan on only using a drive on your Mac and it has MacOS High Sierra or newer installed, you’ll want to stick to Apple’s APFS format. And the same can be said for a Windows HD, if you only plan on connecting it to a PC, then NTFS is the way to go.

Mac or PC? That is the question.

OK, what are my alternatives to using exFAT?

The good news is, it’s not exFAT or nothing. The alternative solutions do require more tinkering.

Option 1: Format to NTFS and buy this app for your Mac

If you keep your hard drive’s out-of-the-box NTFS format, you’ll be able to read the drive when it’s connected to a Mac, but you won’t be able to write to it. In other words, you can look at files saved on the drive, but you can’t save any new files from your Mac. In order to enable read/write access, you’ll need to purchase a third-party solution such as Paragon NTFS . It’s $20, and is compatible with all Macs, even the more recently announced M1 Macs.

Option 2: Format to APFS and use a different Paragon app

Conversely, you can format the HD to APFS and use Paragon’s APFS for Windows to read and write to the Mac-formatted hard drive. The only downside is that it’s $50. With it installed, you’ll be able to read/write to APFS drives on a Windows PC.

You aren’t stuck with your drive formatted for one platform forever.

Option 3: Create two partitions on your hard drive to use with each OS, separately.

This solution is a little different than the previous two because instead of having one hard drive that works with both machines, you’re splitting your HD into two sections, each dedicated to a different OS. For example, if you have a 1TB hard drive, 500GB of storage can be used with your Windows computer, and 500 will be dedicated to your Mac computer.

You won’t be able to write to the Mac side from your Windows computer, and vice versa, but it’s a good solution for people who want all the advantages each format has to offer for its respective system.

To do that, connect the empty external HD to your Mac and launch Disk Utility. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the Partition tab. Click the + sign to add a second partition, then drag the lines to adjust the size of each partition. For example, you might want more storage for your Mac than you do for your PC.

Name one partition Windows and change its format to exFAT. Then click the second partition, name it Mac and change its format to APFS. Give your settings a final lookover and click Apply.

Going forward, you should be able to use the drive and its dual partitions on their respective operating systems.

Now that you have your drive formatted based on how you plan to use it, take a few minutes and make sure you’re backing up your computer. We have a guide for backing up a Mac , as well as backing up a PC .

If you can’t copy a file to your hard drive it likely isn’t formatted for the operating system you are using. This is common with new drives which frequently come formatted for Windows computers in the NTFS format, which is not comparable with Mac OS. To copy files to the drive you must re-format it using a different type of formatting. This process only takes a few minutes but will erase all files on the drive so make sure you copy off any files you need before reformatting.

Choose your format

• ExFAT – Compatible with Windows and Mac Operating Systems. Good option if you use both platforms.
• Mac OS Extended (Journaled) – Standard MAC only format
• NTFS – Standard Windows only format

Format Drive Instructions

MAC Instructions

To reformat a hard drive or USB stick first open Disk Utility. To find it quickly, do a search for “Disk Utility” in the spotlight (magnify glass) icon on the upper right side of the screen.

Find and Open Disk Utility

Next, complete the following steps in Disk Utility

1. Select the drive you wish to format from the list.
2. Select the “Erase” tab.
3. Select the format type you wish to use and give the drive a name.
4. Click erase. It will take a short while to delete all the files and change the format of the disk.

PC Instructions

Use the start menu to search for and open the disk management utility – “Create and format hard disk partitions”. Complete the following steps in Disk Management:

1. Select the drive you wish to format from the list.
2. Right click on the drive and select Format.

Enter a name for the drive in Volume label and select the format type in the File system dropdown box.

FAT32 is a versatile file system that has been around for decades. It’s been largely replaced by exFAT which has capacity for larger file and partition sizes and NTFS – the most widely-used and versatile file system for Windows – but it still has uses for older devices and for those looking for a simple file format for their flash drives.

Fortunately, you can still format flash drives to the FAT32 format in Windows – whether using the integrated tool or third-party tools (which offer more options). Here’s how to format a drive to FAT32 in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

What Is FAT32?

FAT stands for File Allocation Table, and it is a file system commonly used in USB flash drives. FAT was introduced way back in 1977 and is compatible with virtually all operating systems. This means that Macs, PCs, Linux machines, and even phones can read FAT files.

Because of FAT’s near universal compatibility, it is the ideal format for file sharing between devices. It is for this reason that most USB drives and SD cards are formatted in FAT32 straight from the manufacturer, as it’s going to work right out of the box with no additional formatting required.

The Limitations of FAT32

Since the FAT32 file system is so old, there are two significant limitations. The first is that the FAT32 file architecture cannot be used on drives larger than 16TB. Admittedly, this isn’t a huge issue for most people. However, the second drawback of FAT32 can be a bigger headache: FAT32 cannot handle individual files over 4GB in size.

FAT32 has been replaced by the more modern exFAT (extended file allocation) file system. exFAT has a greater file-size limit than FAT32. The only downside to exFAT is that it was developed by Microsoft and therefore owns all the patents.

This means the ability to manipulate the exFAT file structure, such as read, write, and repair capabilities, must be licensed. Unfortunately, this means there can be some compatibility issues when using exFAT. This makes FAT32 a bit easier to work with, despite the file-size limitations.

Format Using Integrated Tool

Windows 10 and 11 have a handy internal tool for formatting your flash drives. With the drive you want to format inserted into your PC, go to “This PC” and find the drive under “Devices and drives”.

Right-click the flash drive then click “Format.”

In the Format window, click the dropdown under ‘File system’ and select “FAT32.”

You can also change your allocation unit size. Generally you should leave this as default but if the drive will only contain larger files like videos and movies, then you can crank this up all the way to 64 kilobytes, as that will (some say) make the reading of the files faster. If you deal in small files then leave the allocation unit size at default to preserve space.

You can name the volume under “Volume label”, and also deselect “Quick Format” if you want Windows to scan the drive for faults before formatting.

Finally, click “Start” to format the drive.

Powershell (Command Line)

Another way to format to FAT32 in Windows is Powershell.

Before you get started, connect the storage device you want to format in FAT32 to your PC. When you connect the drive, make note of the letter assigned to it.

Note: before proceeding any further, ensure that your data is backed up. Formatting will erase all of the data currently stored on the drive.

To launch the Powershell command line, right-click the Start button and select “Run” from the menu. This will open the Run command window. Alternatively, you can press Win + R to launch the Run command box. Type powershell and either click OK or press Enter.

Once the Powershell window opens, type the following command, replacing the “F” with the letter of the drive you want to format in FAT32:

Finally, hit the Enter key. You will see a prompt warning you that all of the data on the drive will be wiped. Press the Y key to confirm the formatting. Let your computer do its thing, and before you know it, your drive will be formatted in FAT32.

Third-Party Software

If you’re not comfortable with the command line and prefer something with a graphical user interface, you can opt for third-party software. There are a number of options available, including (but not limited to) the ones listed below:

1. Mini Aide FAT32 Formatter

Mini Aide FAT32 Formatter is a nice and easy solution if you are looking to format a drive in FAT32 format. The interface is clean and provides you with all the information about your hard disks and partitions. Mini Aide also lets you create a new partition, and delete or relabel an existing partition. This tool provides all the necessary features but is also very low on RAM usage.

2. EaseUS Partition Master Free

EaseUS Partition Master Free is arguably one of the most used and popular tools for all your partition-related solutions. You can extend your HDD partition, manage disk space, delete a partition, relabel it, etc. The best thing about it is unlike other partition managers, it does not feature ads, even in the free version of the tool. Moreover, you can convert disks and partitions in multiple formats, including FAT32. This tool has a user-friendly interface, and you can interact with current partitions and disks at the bottom of the UI.

3. Rufus

Rufus is a very small, lightweight, easy-to-use, and effective format conversion tool. It is a standalone tool that lets you convert and create a bootable USB drive in multiple formats. Since the app is just over 1MB in size, it is quite fast in operation and lets you create an ISO on a USB.

Also read: How to Check If a USB Drive Is Bootable or Not in Windows 10

Want to keep managing things in Windows? See our guide on reinstalling DirectX in Windows, as well as how to schedule shutdown and startup.

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External hard drives back up your most important files, but what happens when they malfunction? Here’s what to do if your device is not detected in Windows and Mac.

Backing up your data is important, and while storing information on the cloud has become second nature to most, there’s still nothing like having everything saved on a physical device.

External drives are simple: you plug them in, they appear on your computer, and you can drag files right on over. But if your drive isn’t appearing when you plug it in, you might have a problem. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to remedy the situation.

Make Sure It’s Plugged In and Powered On

I know, I know, but hear me out: just because you plugged the drive into your computer doesn’t mean it’s necessarily receiving the power it needs. While some drives can draw enough power from your computer’s USB port, others—especially larger drives not intended to be portable, like the Western Digital My Book—may require wall power to spin up.

If your drive came with an AC power adapter but you haven’t plugged it in, try hooking it up (and pressing the power button, if there is one). If it came with two USB plugs, make sure they’re both plugged into your PC. With any luck, your drive will appear normally once it gets the juice it needs.

Try Another USB Port (or Another PC)

If the drive still isn’t working, unplug it and try a different USB port. It’s possible the port in question is failing, or just being finicky with your specific drive. If it’s plugged into a USB 3.0 port, try a USB 2.0 port. If it’s plugged into a USB hub, try plugging it directly into the PC instead. You might also try it in another computer.

If you’re a multi-platform household, I’d especially recommend trying it in a computer that runs another operating system—e.g., if you can’t get the drive showing up on a Windows PC, try plugging it into a Mac. It’s possible the drive just isn’t formatted for the computer you’re trying to use, and you’ll need to copy that data onto a drive that’s formatted for cross-compatibility.

Update Your Drivers

Occasionally, Windows runs into driver issues that will render a device unrecognizable. Open the Start menu, type “device manager,” and press Enter when the option appears. Expand the Disk Drives menu and the Universal Serial Bus menu to see if your external drive appears in either set. If you see an entry that looks like your drive with a yellow exclamation mark, right-click on the device and choose Properties—you may find an error code you can Google. You can also head to the Driver tab and try updating or uninstalling the driver and rebooting your computer.

Usually, hard drives just use Windows’ built-in USB and hard disk drivers, so this isn’t likely to fix a temperamental drive, but it’s worth a shot. (You can also try downloading drivers from the drive manufacturer’s website, but again, that’s probably a long shot.) Check out our guide to updating your drivers for more details on this process.

Enable and Format the Drive in Disk Management

If your drive is powered on but still isn’t appearing in File Explorer, it’s time to do some digging. Open the Start menu and type “disk management,” and press Enter when the Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions option appears. Once Disk Management loads, scroll down to see if your disk appears in the list. If it does, make sure it’s online and formatted. If it’s offline, right-click the disk’s name (e.g. “Disk 2”) and choose Online.

If the disk hasn’t been formatted (it’ll say “Unallocated” under a black bar), right-click it and choose New Simple Volume. This will also solve the problem if the drive is formatted for another operating system, as described above. Be warned that formatting it will erase any data on the drive, so only continue if you’re sure you don’t need anything from it.

Finally, if your drive is online and formatted, but doesn’t show a drive letter next to its name, right-click the volume and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths to add a drive letter. If you’re lucky, one of these simple steps should get your new drive up and running.

Clean the Disk and Start From Scratch

In some more specific cases, the drive will appear in Disk Management, but merely formatting the drive won’t work. This is extremely common with SD cards formatted with Linux distributions for the Raspberry Pi, for example.

To regain your drive’s full capacity, you’ll need to run Windows’ “clean” command, which will return the drive to a completely unformatted state. Again, this will erase anything on it, so only continue if you have no other options—and make extra sure you’re cleaning the correct disk, or you could lose a lot of data.

Open the Start menu, type “diskpart,” and press Enter to open the run command. When the prompt appears, type “list disk” and press Enter to see the disks plugged into your system. If you see the drive in question appear—pay close attention to its size—make a note of its name. We’ll use “Disk 2” in this example.

Type “select disk 2” and press Enter to select the disk you want to clean. Finally, type “clean” and press Enter. This will erase the disk, at which point you can follow the above steps to format it from the Disk Management console.

Remove and Test the Bare Drive

If none of the above options work, you should remove the drive from its external enclosure and test the drive on its own. The components that convert that SATA drive into USB can fail, meaning the drive could be just fine if you connect it some other way.

If you have a desktop PC available, and the technological know-how, you can open it up and plug the drive directly into your motherboard. If not, buy a new external SATA-to-USB adapter dock or enclosure, plug your bare drive into that, then connect that to your PC over USB.

If it works, then your old enclosure (or its power supply) may be dead. If your drive still isn’t recognized, you may have a dead drive. Contact the manufacturer to see if you’re still under warranty, and make sure your other hard drives are in working order.

Our Favorite External Hard Drives

If your drive is beyond repair, it might be time for a new one. Check out PCMag’s roundup of the best hard drives, wireless drives, and rugged drives. We also have roundups of the best drives for Mac.

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If you need to format a drive using Windows 11, you can do it directly from File Explorer. Here’s how to do it.

When you format a drive on Windows 11, it erases the drive’s existing data and prepares it for other tasks. When you connect a drive, either internally or externally, it’s important to format it. This allows you to clear the hard drive of any unnecessary files and potential malware. Formatting a drive is also an excellent way to quickly check whether or not the drive is working properly.

The formatting process also helps you ensure a drive uses the correct settings for your PC to avoid any compatibility issues. Whenever you format a drive, whether it’s a solid-state drive or a classic hard drive, you’ll be able to choose a compatible file system like NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT.

Here’s how to format a drive using File Explorer in Windows 11.

How to Format a Drive in Windows 11

Note: Formatting a drive will scrub all of the data on it. Make sure to back up any critical files and folders before beginning the format process.

To get started, make sure the disk you want to format is connected and recognized by Windows 11. Next, right-click on Start and click File Explorer from the menu that comes up.

It’s also worth noting that you can open File Explorer by clicking the folder icon on the taskbar.

After File Explorer opens, click on This PC from the column on the left. Right-click the drive you want to format under the Devices and Drives section, then click Format from the context menu that appears.

Formatting Options

Next, choose from the following options in the Format menu to format your drive:

• Capacity: The max data capacity of the hard drive once it’s formatted. Note that the formatting process takes up some space on the drive.
• File System: This represents the data structure that defines how data is stored on a drive. There are three file systems to choose from—FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. Use the latter if you plan on using the drive on macOS and Windows. For Windows 10/11, use the NTFS system. FAT32 has a 4GB limit and isn’t optimal in modern computing environments. Mac users should pick exFAT instead.
• Allocation Unit Size: Unit size, aka “cluster size,” is set to 4 Kilobytes for NTFS by default, which is a small block. Adjusting this was something users would do back when all we had was clunky and slow hard disk drives. Today, you can keep it set to the default value without problems.
• Volume Label: The volume label is simply the name you want to assign to the drive. After formatting, you’ll see the name of the drive in File Explorer.
• Format Options: A quick format performs a high-level format, but it only deletes the file system table and root folder. This means that data is still on the drive and could be recovered. However, as you use the drive, the leftover data is overwritten. If you do a full format (which takes longer), Windows will scan for bad sectors and write zeros in each sector—deleting all of the data and making it unrecoverable. The option is yours, but you’ll probably want to do a full format on a drive that contains a lot of sensitive and personal data.

Continue Formatting Drive

After you’ve made your formatting selections, press the Start button in the Format window.

Next, you will see a warning message letting you know all data will be deleted. Again, ensure any data on the drive that you need is backed up.

When you’re ready, click OK to begin the process.

You’ll see a progress bar during the formatting process. The amount of time it takes will vary, based on the size of the drive, the amount of data on it, and whether you choose to “quick format” the drive or not.

When the formatting process is complete, a message will appear—click OK to confirm.

Using Your Formatted Drive in Windows 11

The steps above should have helped you to successfully format a drive in Windows 11.

At this point, your drive is ready to use—any existing data is erased, and you can begin to reuse it. You can open File Explorer > This PC and see the new drive listed under the Devices and Drives section.

If you’re having trouble with Windows 11, you may decide to create a Windows 11 bootable USB drive to fix it. After creating a bootable drive, you can then perform a clean installation of Windows 11 to restore your PC.

To determine the file system running on your computer’s hard drive, select your version of Windows in the list below and follow the provided steps.

• Window 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10.
• Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME.

Determining file system in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and 8

1. Open My Computer.
2. In My Computer, Computer, or This PC, right-click the drive you want to view and select Properties.
3. The Properties window should list the file system on the General tab. As shown in the picture below, the file system of this computer is NTFS.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP users with administrative privileges can also see what file system is running on their computer by following the steps below.

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Open Administrative Tools (XP Professional users need to open Performance and Maintenance and then Administrative Tools).
3. Open the Computer Management.
4. In Computer Management, under Storage, click Disk Management, which displays all drives and each of their file systems and other important information about the drives.

Determining file system in 3.x, 95, 98, and ME

Users of Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME can determine the file system (FAT version) by running the fdisk command to display the partition information. See the fdisk command page for additional information and help with this command.

Users using Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows ME

Users running Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows ME can also determine the file system that is running on the computer by following the steps below.

1. Open My Computer.
2. In My Computer, right-click the drive you want to view and select Properties.
3. The Properties window should list the file system on the General tab.

Is there a way to list the available drives from cmd.exe ? (Other than manually typying

and seeing which ones return errors)

11 Answers 11

if probably the easiest one. Doesn’t need administrative privileges, doesn’t return more or less than what’s needed, etc.

If you want to use it in a script, then wrap it in for /f with the skip=1 option:

If you’re in Command Prompt:

to return to the command line.

For the sake of completeness, there is yet another way:

(Not a very scripting-friendly output, but it may be useful for human eye)

Some reference. That should work since win2k but only with Administrator account.

(Thanks @Carlos Campderrós for enhancing the answer)

If you’re using powershell then you can type in

Edited in response to comments to only show filesystems

You can get (query) multiple properties this way. This will give you the partition/drive letter and the label you gave the drive/partition when you formatted the drive:

For help and to list all the permission options:

Use the doskey built in function to create an alias that runs the wmic command with the necessary atributes

This will create an aliases “v” that whenever typed will run the given command and list all volume letters.

To see available drives and their mount points from the cli I use

You can also use the unmounted volume GUID for some commands like chkdsk and stuff.

When you’re using powershell, you can use the simple command

and get a nice list with 8 columns:

I write Label where get-volume writes FriendlyName (and I have abbreviated some of the titles in the list in order to minimize the risk of scrolling horizontally to see the end of the line).

In VBscript we can use:

In Powershell you can list drives inside an array with:

Here it selects root property which shows like C:\ where name shows like C .

To iterate over drives in batch you can use:

my approach would be a batch file with a standalone single command, (not external command needed).

I absolutely love the pure batch method shown in the answer from cybercontroler, all internal commands no less!

I wanted to share my batch edit/modification that based on cybercontroler’s answer.

For my current project, I needed to identify which drive labeled as DATA so I replaced the echo command with vol (internal command).

I also used the set command to create the variable [1] that would contain the full set of capital letters in order to shorten the for command’s length.

Since if exist will be checking for drive letters only, there will never be a space character in this test, so I omitted the double quotes.

Testing the omission the two back slashes yields the same results.

The added command line @echo off filtered the output to show results only.

I piped the results to the external find command to filter serial number lines created by the vol command.

I placed a pause command so that it wouldn’t be necessary to run a “Command Prompt” beforehand in order to see the results when clicking on the batch file.

The results from the original identified all available drive letters mixed in with for command processing the full set of capital letters. With @echo off filtering, my run displayed:

The results using vol displays: Volume in drive C is OS

Here’s my batch file which includes both for commands; you can comment-out the for command that you do not want to run by prefixing command lines with two colons ( :: ).

Batch File

Note that this batch method does not identify DVD drives, not sure why. But the command fsutil fsinfo drives does. My output reads: Drives: C:\ D;\ J:\ ( J:\ being my DVD drive.)

I am attempting to recover an old computer that won’t boot and I’m not sure what version of Windows it is running. How do I tell simply by examining the file system?

I am fairly confident it is either Vista or Windows 7. There is a small chance it is Windows Server 2008.

10 Answers 10

Your best bet is going to be finding the properties of a Windows Executable (such as explorer.exe). In my case it’s File and Product version is 6.1.7601.17567

6.0.xxxx.xxxxx will denote Windows Vista (with 6000, 6001 and 6002 being RTM, SP1 and SP2 respectively).

6.1.xxxx.xxxxx will denote Windows 7 (with 7600 and 7601 being RTM and SP1).

The same version numbers will apply for Windows server as well so I’m not sure how you’d tell the difference with those using this method.

Look at the file

Can be found for all these Windows operating systems

Vista, W7, W8, W8.1

These License rtf will have the Version of Windows and the Edition also, Windows 7 Pro for example.

Windows 10 has the rtf file but does not show edition, but if it has the arbitration clause note at the top you know it is W10, or use the explorer trick in Matthew Steeples answer.

To find the Windows 10 product type (Home Pro etc) type see Moif Murphy’s answer further down this page

Using the registry you can look up version and edition

Use the values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion . I presume you know where to find that hive?! The respective hive can be found under %SystemRoot%\System32\config with the name SOFTWARE .

Side-note: you can attempt to verify your results by looking at some well-known files (e.g. kernel32.dll , ntdll.dll ) and into their version information resource (what you’re looking for is the file version: with, e.g. GetFileVersionInfo() ).

Edition values, if that’s needed, can be found at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions .

More specifically, how to load the hive of another registry:

If you have Linux on the same system, you could boot into Linux, ensure the Windows partition is mounted (for instance here it’s in /mnt/C ) and then do strings /mnt/C/Windows/System32/ntoskrnl.exe 2>/dev/null | grep amd64 . For me in printed 9600.18258.amd64fre.winblue_ltsb.160303-0600 , and googling for winblue indicates that this was the code name for Windows 8.1.

For Windows 10 one can use Wordpad.exe, notepad.exe on Windows OS for analyzing
C:\\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\osver.txt .

On Unix systems a console command like
cat /ProgramData/Microsoft/Diagnosis/osver.txt
shows version number.

Example for OS build number: 10.0.18362 (without .116 – [email protected])

If you don’t have a running Windows and want to find the information from a Linux machine, you can use hivexget to read the registry file on the disk.

For Debian-based systems, install it with sudo apt install libhivex-bin .

Example (with grep to make the output shorter):

Remove the | egrep . part to see all values under that key.

If you can still run executables from that filesystem, you can run C:\Windows\System32\winver.exe

If you boot into Windows installation media (say USB stick), and press [SHIFT] + [F10] to get the command prompt, you could query which drive letter corresponds to the original OS drive in question, and then get the version info of a program like ntoskrnl.exe . For example to explore the installed disks and related drive letters,

Or using the method from @beyondtime, which is less typing but omits the decimal part of the build number

So here the OS installed on the indicated drive letter is Windows 10, Build 15063.413. A google search shows this to be Windows 10 version 1703 | Redstone 2 | Creators Update.

As a bonus, if you want to see the last time that OS was booted, you can do

You can probably determine when the OS was originally installed by reviewing the creation time of the hidden files and folders at the root of the drive:

Have you ever gone to leave the house and couldn’t find your keys . . . and then still couldn’t find your keys five minutes later still and then you were officially going to be late to where you were heading? Well, computers can’t afford to have that problem or else people would just throw them out the window and not forgive them, so they need to come up with some type of solution.

Enter the file system: a system that has been purposefully engineered so that applications can store and retrieve files on storage devices.

There are all different types of file systems for different bits of hardware that make up a computer—solid state drive, hard disk drive, USB thumb drive, so forth—and each of them gets divided up into many units that each store data, as well as have a plan on how to remember what data is being stored in each unit. It makes it easier to go then and find that data later on when being called upon by applications that need it.

The Windows 10 operating system supports several types of file systems. They are the following: FAT. FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS. You can find out what file system a drive is using in Windows 10 from the File Explorer.

This is how to determine the file system of a drive when you’re using the Windows 10 operating system.

How to Find Out File System of Drives in This PC from File Explorer

You can determine the file system of a drive from This PC in File Explorer in Windows 10. To get started, head to the Start menu > File Explorer > This PC from File Explorer’s navigation pane down the left side and then right-click on the drive of your choice and select “Properties” from the menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

Keep it on the “General” tab and just look where it shows you the “File System.”

How to Find Out File System of Drives in Disk Management

You can determine the file system of a drive from Disk Management in Windows 10 also. To do it this way, right-click the mouse pointer on the “Start” button in the left side of the taskbar and then click on the “Disk Management” from the Win+X Quick Links menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

You’ll now have the Disk Management window open. One of the columns available for you to view from the Disk Management window is the “File System,” and that’s what you need to see the file system of your drive. First, you’ll need to select the drive you want to see the information to by clicking on it once.

If you look further down the same Disk management window, you’ll also see it tell you the name of the file system where it lists your drive. It doesn’t actually let you know it is the file system though so it’s only useful if you know that you’re looking for NTFS, FAT32, etc.

How to Find Out File System of Drives in Command Prompt

You can also determine the file system type of a drive that’s on your computer by using the Command Prompt in Windows 10, too. To do it this way, open up the elevated Command Prompt window so you are using it with the administrative permissions and then type the diskpart command.

You’ll be prompted by User Account Control (UAC) where you’ll then need to click on the “Yes” button to continue. Once you do you’ll see the Command Prompt window on your computer’s display once again.

Now type the list volume command and hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard and it’ll show you the information that’s relating to your volumes, and one of the columns being the file system, abbreviated with the “FS” initials as shown in the screenshot below.

How to Find Out File System of Drives in PowerShell

You can also determine the file system of a drive by using the Windows PowerShell in Windows 10. To find out how, open the Windows PowerShell window (It doesn’t have to be the elevated kind this time) and then type the get-volume command and hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard.

Look for the “File System Type” column listed to find out the type of file system of the drive.

File systems play an integral role in helping your computer gather information, but they can present some problems for the end user. Many operating systems use different file systems, and they aren’t always compatible—have an HFS+ formatted drive on a Mac? Well, it won’t be able to work with a Windows operating system, for example. Since compatibility can sometimes be an issue, there may be times when you need to know what file system your computer uses. FAT32 is compatible with the most machines, but if you have a bigger hard drive, then it’ll likely be using the NTFS file system instead.

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