Can I re-partition and re-format hard drive using windows 7 pro op system software?
I have quite a number of FAT32 SATA HDDs that I would like to re-partition and re-format as NTFS HDDs with one partition. I am using these HDDs in a couple of Plugable USB 3.0 SuperSpeed SATA III Lay-Flat Hard Drive Docking Stations as scratch disks for a home movie video project. None will have operating systems installed. Can I use the win 7 operating system software to do this or do I need some other software?
Zaheer Iqbal
Yes just plug them in and use computer management / disk management to re-format.
Hi there,
shure you can partition them via Windows 7 OS. Just enter Computer, right click on disk you want to format, right click Format, and choose NTFS.
Other way is to enter disk management. Right click on Computer, Manage, Storage, Disk Management. Right click on disk and same procedure.
Via CMD that would be diskpart utility, but you don't need to do that.
Regards,
shure you can partition them via Windows 7 OS. Just enter Computer, right click on disk you want to format, right click Format, and choose NTFS.
Other way is to enter disk management. Right click on Computer, Manage, Storage, Disk Management. Right click on disk and same procedure.
Via CMD that would be diskpart utility, but you don't need to do that.
Regards,
You might be able to but a better option might be to create a bootable disk for like Linux Mint and use the GPART EDIT to repartiotion and format the drive. The tools are pretty simple and easy to use there is lots of documentation online as well.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
At least when I am working from home this is what I use as it is free/ fast and easy.
If you have questions let me know though it's been 2-3 years since I have extensively used any linux system Mint looks and feels like windows enough for most people to grasp it fairly quick coming from a windows platform.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
At least when I am working from home this is what I use as it is free/ fast and easy.
If you have questions let me know though it's been 2-3 years since I have extensively used any linux system Mint looks and feels like windows enough for most people to grasp it fairly quick coming from a windows platform.
Ignore my comment and use the above options... They didn't appear until after my post. However it is always good to have a spare bootable disk in case you want to use another format other than the standard windows ones.
ASKER
Just to clarify - I don't need to re-partition before reformatting? It seemed like the the Disk Management utility in Win 7 wanted to reformat JUST the partition I clicked on. It seemed like I needed to first create one partition and then format. Not true?
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ASKER
That's what I don't know how to do - delete existing partition and make a single partition. Can I do that with win 7? Without additional software? At least the procedure to to this didn't jump out to me.
Technically all you need to do to repartition is to write zeros in the first 512 bytes of the disk. That destroys the table and windows and Linux will then say disk is formatted and has no partitions. You can do that in 1 whole second with the dd command. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xxxx count=1 Substitute the correct device name for xxxx
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to add to the above, everytime you delete a partition, it will appear as free space
so - if you want to reformat the whole disk as one - be sure to delete ALL partitions
then right click the only free space (= total disk space) and select initialise - or format
this will result in 1 partition for the whole disk
so - if you want to reformat the whole disk as one - be sure to delete ALL partitions
then right click the only free space (= total disk space) and select initialise - or format
this will result in 1 partition for the whole disk
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do you want to keep the data?