Showing “Error While Formatting External Hard Drive”? Here’s a Simple Guide to Fix It

Formatting an external hard drive should be a smooth process. You plug it in, choose the file system you want, click “Start,” and voilà your drive is ready to go. But what happens when you get an error message instead? It can be frustrating and confusing, especially if you have important data or you just bought the drive. In this post, we’ll break down why formatting errors happen, and walk you through easy, step-by-step solutions to get your drive working again.

If you’re also looking for a solution, click here: External Hard Drive Not Ejected Properly.

Why Formatting Errors Occur?

Before going into fixes, it is helpful to know what might be causing the problems. Here are the most usual culprits:

• Disk Errors & Bad Sectors : Over time, parts of a hard drive can become damaged or unreadable (“bad sectors”). If the formatting program clicks these spots, it can fail.
• Write Protection: Some drives (or their cases) have a physical switch or firmware setting that prevents any changes, including formatting.
• Corrupted File System: If the drive was improperly disconnected or experienced a power loss, the file system might be corrupted and refuse to reformat cleanly.
• Insufficient Permissions: On Windows, you might need administrator rights. On mac OS, you might need to unlock deeper system permissions.
• Driver or Software Conflicts: Outdated or missing USB controller drivers on your computer can interfere. Third-party disk-management tools could also clash.
• Virus or Malware: Malicious software can lock or corrupt drives, blocking formatting.

1. First Aid: Basic Checks

Before you get technical, run through this quick checklist:

• Change USB Port & Cable

Use a dissimilar USB port or a new cable. A defective connection can trigger errors.

• Restart Your Computer

A fresh reboot clears many temporary glitches.

• Try Another Computer

If possible, see if another PC or Mac can format the drive. That helps you know if the problem is the drive or your computer.

• Check for Physical Write Protection

Look for a tiny switch on the drive’s case. If it’s “locked,” flip it to “unlock.”

2. Windows Solutions

If you are on Windows 10 and 11, follow below steps:

Open Disk Management

• Right-select the Start ?Hit on the Disk Management.

Locate Your Drive

• Find the external drive in the bottom pane. Be careful not to select your system drive!

Delete Existing Volume (if present)

• Right-hit the partitions on the drive ? Delete or remove Volume.

Create New Simple Volume

• Right-click the unallocated space ? New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard to choose a drive letter and file system (NTFS for Windows-only, exFAT for cross-platform).

If you still get an error, move on to the Command Prompt method.

3. Format via DiskPart

• Open Command Prompt as Administrator
• Search the CMD, hit the Command Prompt ? Run as administrator.

1. Launch DiskPart
2. List Disks

• Note the number of your external drive (e.g., Disk 2).

1. Select Your Disk
2. Clean the Drive

Warning: This erases everything.

• Create a Partition
• Format the Partition

Or fs=ntfs quick if you only need Windows compatibility.

• Assign a Drive Letter.
• Exit DiskPart.

If errors persist, it might be a hardware issue or bad sectors. See Section 5 below.

4. Windows: Check Disk Tool

• Open Command Prompt as Admin.

1. Run chkdsk
2. chkdsk F: /f /r /x

• Replace F: with your drive letter.

/f fixes errors, /r locates bad sectors, /x forces dismount.

• Wait for the process to finish (it may take a while on large drives).
• Retry Formatting via Disk Management or DiskPart.

If low-level disk errors or bad sectors are to blame, you can scan and repair them:

Formatting Fails or Showing Error While Formatting External Hard Drive: Fix Issue

“For the last few days, I have been facing an issue while formatting a hard disk in Windows. The situation is that I want to do a clean and successful installation of Windows 7 on my laptop. But, whenever I tried to format the hard disk, I received an error: “Windows could not format a partition on the disk. This is the error that occurs every time I try to format the complete hard disk. I do not know what is happening with the hard disk partition in Windows 10 on my hard drive. Therefore, we are looking for a solution to fix this formatting hard drive issue.”.

Note: If you formatted your hard drive and lost your data from it,. Then, you can use Hard Disk Data Recovery Software. It recovers all types of data, such as: photos, videos, audio, and multimedia files and folders

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There are many types of data available on a machine and they are used by different types of user groups. Therefore, this software is not limited to a single set of data and allows you to repair any type of data, be it media or document files. You can download this utility on Windows OS. It supports recovering deleted files from Seagate’s external hard drive.

1. Download and run it on your computer.
2. Select a partition and click the Scan or Scan Format icon.
3. View a complete sample of recovered data items in the software’s control panel.
4. Select Keep all data or Keep deleted” to recover all data from your hard drive.

Tips & Tricks to Troubleshoot Hard Disk Formatting Issue

To resolve the “cannot format hard drive in Windows” issue, one can use various troubleshooting tips and tricks discussed below:

• Make sure that the latest drivers are installed in the system for the hardware. One can look for the latest drivers from hardware manufacturers.
• The most important thing is to always keep the computer system free from viruses or spyware.
• Sometimes data cable is the cause of formatting problems so, it is suggested to be replaced with serial ATA or IDE ribbon cable.
• Moreover, make sure that these cables are not longer than 18 inches.
• One can also try Quick Format instead of Full Format when the Full Format is not completed successfully.

Final Word

There can be various reasons to format the hard drive in Windows but when it fails to complete, it creates trouble for the user. It becomes really difficult for a user to detect the exact reason behind the error showing error while formatting external hard drive or being unable to format the disk in Windows. Thus, after understanding the main causes behind the formatting failure or an error shown while formatting a hard drive in Windows, various troubleshooting methods are discussed. One can use them based on the cause and resolve the hard disk problem while formatting in Windows.