External hard drives are used to store data like files, movies, music, etc., and move them to another system. In order to use an external hard drive, it should have a proper file system and format which can be used for both source and destination systems. Windows operating systems generally use NTFS and FAT as the file system for the local and external hard drives. In this tutorial, we examine how to format external hard drives in Windows 10.
First, connect the external hard drive to the system and then open the File Explorer . In the
In File Explorer the left pane some important directories and hard drives. The external hard drive is listed under the This PC . Right-click to the external hard drive which opens a context menu like below. There click to the Format .
The Format tool is opened for the specified external hard drive. This tool is used to format the hard drive whit different configurations like below.
- File System is used to set external hard drive file system.
NTFSandFATcan be used as a file system where FAT is the default file system. FAT can be used for compatibility with most of the different systems. NTFS is a newer file system which provides more feature and performance than FAT. - Volume label is used to set a human-readable name for this drive.
After clicking to the Start Button we get the following message which simply wants confirmation about the formatting. As this formatting operation deletes all files and folders for the specified external hard drive we should approve it by clicking to the OK .
