How to Format and Repair External Storage Disk Using Command Prompt on Windows 7/8/10 Computer

Welcome again guys to technologysage. Today, we are going to look at How to format and repair external storage disk using command prompt on windows 7/8/10 computer. There are several occasions where you will need to use command prompt to format and repair external storage disks using command prompt or CMD. In some cases, you might find that your external disk cannot be formatted by the basic format method we use to format our disks by right clicking on the drive and selecting the “format” option.

This is usually because the external drive we are trying to format has got issues with the sectors inside. On another event, you might want change your windows Operating system using your flash drive. To do this, your flash disk drive should be made bootable. Also, there can be a case where by the drive or external disk is corrupted by a virus and cannot be opened. In either case, command prompt or also well known as the CMD should do this for you quite well. Let us look at How to format and repair external storage disk using command prompt on windows 7/8/10 computer. Also read: How to flash stock/custom ROM on Samsung using Odin software using a computer

How to format and repair external storage disk using command prompt on windows 7/8/10 computer

Now, am going to take you through the steps elaborately. Don’t worry if you haven’t used CMD before. This step by step guide will help you on How to format and repair external storage disk using command prompt on windows 7/8/10 computer. The following are very simple straight forward steps for you to achieve this. Follow them carefully. Check also: How to disable notifications from Google Chrome on Windows 10

Step By Step Instructions On How To Format And Repair External Storage Disk Using Command Prompt On Windows 7/8/10 Computer

  • The first step involves going to Command prompt. But before that, insert your external drive like a hard disk, flash disk or memory card into the USB port on your windows PC or laptop.

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd 0.PNG

Remember you should put in mind the storage capacity of the disk you want to format to avoid formatting the wrong disk.

  • Step 2, now go to command prompt or cmd. To get command prompt, click on the windows key on your keyboard and in the search bar, search “CMD” and right click on cmd to open it as Administrator. After it opens, in the area with a blinking white cursor, type “diskpart” or “DISKPART.” You can do it with lower case or upper case.

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd 1.PNG

Remember that “diskpart” should be one word. Not “disk part.” If you don’t separate, then CMD will not recognize that particular command. Now, after keying in that command, click the ENTER button on the keyboard.

  • Now, after that, you will have to wait for a few second for diskpart to appear on cmd. After afew moments, you will see DISKPART with a white cursor blinking next to it.

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Now, next to DISKPART>_ type in this command. “list disk”

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This time round, “list disk” should not be one word as in the case above with “DISKPART.” Click or press the ENTER button on your keyboard for CMD to execute this command.

  • The list disk command will tell CMD to list all the disks mounted on your computer.

Remember here, the listed disks don’t indicate disk letters like C, D, or E. The listed disks are listed with numbers. The internal drive disk partitions are not shown. CMD recognizes all of them as one internal drive always indicated as drive 0. So, put in mind that you cannot format partitions individually. External disks are listed from Disk 1, Disk 2 and more. If you have only one external disk mounted, then that will be Disk 1. Also check the size under ‘size’. Now, below, under DISKPART, type “select disk 1”

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd 6.PNG

this command will instruct CMD to select Drive 1 which is your external hard drive, SD card or flash drive. Click ENTER button on your key board. CMD will select your disk as shown below.

  • After your Disk 1 is selected, now you will have to clean it. Just like in other cases above, type “clean”

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd clean.PNG

Click the enter buton for CMD to start cleaning your drive. After the cleaning process is done, you will see “DISKPART succeeded in cleaning the disk”

  • Now,after cleaning is done, you need to create a primary partition on your disk. In DISKPART, type: “create part primary” or “create part pri” both commands will just work. ‘pri’ just stands for primary. Click the enter BUTTON to create a primary partition on your disk.

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  • After primary partition is successful, now it is time to format your disk drive. In DISKPART, type: “format fs=ntfs” this command will now format your drive.

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Click the ENTER button on your keyboard for CMD to start formatting your disk. The progress in percentage form will be seen from below. This process might take quite long since it is a full format and also depending on your disk capacity. But you should be patient and wait for formatting to complete.

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd complete exit.PNG

  • After formating is done, now it is time to exit CMD. Type: “exit” and click enter or just cancel the cmd window to close it just like any other window. Now, you can check your Disk from the “My Computer” or “This PC” if you are using windows 10.

C:\Users\Mr. Priest\Pictures\cmd drive G formated.PNG

That is it. That is the process on How to format and repair external storage disk using command prompt on windows 7/8/10 computer.

Note:

Everything you do as far as the process outlined above, will format your external storage and you will lose all your data. Do this only if you really want to format your USB external drive. Lastly, remember to type in exact commands as given above. Any wrong spellings, word separation and changing cases will result in CMD not executing those commands. Thank you all and catch up with us in our next articles. You can also watch the video on this article on our YouTube channel

George Abala
I am a tech enthusiast with a passion for all things mobile phones, computers, software, games, and general technology tricks, tweaks & Mods. I pride in sharing this knowledge through blogging.