What Happens When I Format My Hard Drive

• What Happens When I Format My Hard Drive To My
• What Happens When I Format My Hard Drive Hard Drive

Format vs Unformat

Format: It is the process of preparing a partition for data storage by deleting all the data on it and set up a file system for the drive. You will need to format a hard drive in some specific situations like when your hard drive has a RAW file system, Windows reports 'disk not formatted', or your hard drive is infected by a virus. In addition to these cases, you may accidentally format your hard drive or external storage devices, which happens frequently among users.

• Below are some common causes you can take a look at: The file system is not recognized by Windows. For instance, the file system is Ext 2/3/4. The external drive suffers sudden power outages when it is working. The hard drive is virus infected. The hard drive comes with some bad sectors.
• It allows you to view, create, delete, format, and manage any connected drives on the system. For those of you old to enough to remember Fdisk, DiskPart is the modern replacement.

When you format the hard drive or delete some files manually, the files are actually not deleted. The operating system simply marks that area as deleted so that it can be overwritten easily. The formatted external hard drive will not show any files on your screen but they may still be available for use.

Unformat: It is the process of recovering data from a formatted storage device, be it a hard drive, a USB flash drive, or an SD card. Unformatting a hard drive is needed when users want to recover their data lost due to format. It can only be done with third-party software or manual data recovery services.

How to Unformat a Hard Drive with Data Recovery Software

To unformat hard drive, in other words, users need to recover all data that wiped from the hard drive. As mentioned before, you have to pick up a data recovery service to execute the recovering process. Here we recommend a hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It could help you unformat the HDD and get your files back in simple steps.

Besides recovering data from formatted hard drive, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can do more for you:

• Recover All Kinds of Lost Data. It also supports to recover deleted files emptied from the Recycle Bin or data lost due to partition loss, software crash, virus infection, boot-up problem, or other reasons.
• Recover Data from Various Devices. It can also perform data recovery from USB flash drives, memory cards, digital cameras, and other conventional storage devices.
• Preview Before Recovery. To make sure the file contents are alright, it enables you to preview lost files before the actual recovery.

Now download the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and follow the guide below to unformat HDD.

Steps to Unformat HDD with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard:

Step 1. Click the hard drive that has been formatted by mistake and click 'Scan'.

Step 2. The software starts scanning all lost data on the selected hard drive. 'Filter' button helps you quickly find a specific file type if you have difficulty in looking for wanted files. You can also search for the specific type of files, such as pictures, documents or videos in the Search box by inputting its file name or file format.

Step 3. Finally, select all the wanted files and click 'Recover'. Choose a location to store the files and click 'OK'.

As long as your formatted files are not overwritten by new content, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will help to get back all your lost files from the hard drive. If the

Why Can We Unformat HDD？

In this part, we will demonstrate the theory of unformatting a hard drive. If you want to know why a formatted hard drive can be recovered. Keep reading and check more details.

For all the storage devices, there are two types of format: quick format and full format. A quick format only writes the blocks that contain the file system structure and delete all files from the device, while a full format writes zeroes to all data sectors. After a quick format, the data are still on the hard drive and you just don't have the access to it. By rebuilding the volume, you can access and recover the formatted files.

However, as mentioned, overwritten data cannot be recovered, which means the data lost after a full format cannot be retrieved. Luckily, in Windows, a quick format is the default format option. Thus, if you accidentally formatted a hard drive, it is a quick format and you can unformat your hard drive using data recovery software.

The Bottom Line

When you accidentally formatted a hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, or other storage devices, don't worry. Stop using your device and apply data recovery software to unformat your hard drive. Then you will get all your files back.

Overview of Format Disk Error

'Today when I plugged in my Sandisk SD memory card, Windows reminded me 'You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it'. Is there any way to fix this error without losing my data?'

Usually, if you frequently force unplug your SD card, USB, external hard drive or any other removable device without using the Safely Remove option, the partition table of the device will be corrupted and become RAW which is unreadable by Windows. And then you might receive the disk format error message 'You need to format the disk in drive X before you can use it. Do you want to format it?' when you try to access the storage device. However, it not the only reason that may lead to the format disk error. There are other reasons including:

• The storage device suffers from a sudden power outage
• The storage device is infected by a virus
• The file system of the disk is not Windows-compatible
• There are bad sectors in the USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, or external hard drive

Fixes to 'You Need to Format the Disk in Drive' Error

What Happens When I Format My Hard Drive To My

When you see the notification 'You need to format the disk in drive', it is not necessarily something wrong with your external storage device. Thus, don't hurry to format the disk as the prompt says. It's the last solution you can try. Instead, try the solutions below to fix the error. If, after trying these tips below, the notification still exists, you can recover files from the device first and then format the disk without worrying about losing data.

Tip 1. Try Simple Solutions First

Try a different USB port: Connect your external hard drive, SD card, or USB to another USB port

Try a different computer: Connect your external storage device to another computer. You can try it on both Windows computer and Mac. If the device works properly on macOS, it's highly likely that the file system of the device is not Windows-compatible, thus it is not recognized by Windows.

Run antivirus software: It's possible that the 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it' error is caused by a virus attack. Take a chance to cope with it by running antivirus software on your computer.

If the methods above don't work, don't get frustrated. There are more tips you can try further to fix the matter without losing anything on your external storage device.

Tip 2. Check and Repair Your Device with CMD

Many users have reported that this method had helped them solve the problem of 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it'. This method will check the disk error and fix it automatically.

Step 1. Press the 'Windows' key and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click 'Comand Prompt' and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 3. In the CMD window, type chkdsk G: /f and hit 'Enter'. (Replace 'G' with the drive letter of your external storage device.)

Try a different computer: Connect your external storage device to another computer. You can try it on both Windows computer and Mac. If the device works properly on macOS, it's highly likely that the file system of the device is not Windows-compatible, thus it is not recognized by Windows.

Run antivirus software: It's possible that the 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it' error is caused by a virus attack. Take a chance to cope with it by running antivirus software on your computer.

If the methods above don't work, don't get frustrated. There are more tips you can try further to fix the matter without losing anything on your external storage device.

Tip 2. Check and Repair Your Device with CMD

Many users have reported that this method had helped them solve the problem of 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it'. This method will check the disk error and fix it automatically.

Step 1. Press the 'Windows' key and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click 'Comand Prompt' and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 3. In the CMD window, type chkdsk G: /f and hit 'Enter'. (Replace 'G' with the drive letter of your external storage device.)

Step 4. Then Windows will start checking and repairing disk errors and damaged files. Wait for the process to finish.

When it has finished, you can try again to read your USB, SD card or external hard drive after restart your computer.

However, if the process won't go smoothly and you see the error message: the type of the file system is RAW, CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives, you need to perform raw drive recovery to retrieve your data. It is the only way to fix 'you need to format the disk in drive' error in this case. In a word, if chkdsk doesn't help, the next advice for you is to recover files from your disk and then format it as Windows suggests.

Tip 3. Recover Files and Format the Disk

If all these solutions fail to solve the problem 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it', you can recover files from your external hard drive, USB, SD card, memory card, or other storage media first and then format it. By doing so, you can fix the error without data loss on your storage device. To recover files from the inaccessible disk, you can't miss EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, the reliable hard drive recovery software. It will recover all files on your problematic disk to another safe location. After that, you can format your external storage device without any worry.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS hard drive recovery software.

Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your PC and select the drive on your hard disk where you lost or deleted files. Click 'Scan' and let this program scan all lost data and files on the selected hard drive.

Step 2. Check and preview all lost hard drive data.

Find lost hard drive data from 'Deleted Files', 'Lost Files' or use 'Filter' to quickly navigate the lost data. Check and double-click to preview these found files.

Step 3. Restore lost hard drive data to a safe location.

Select wanted files that you lost on the drive and click 'Recover' to save them. Choose a safe location on your PC or other external storage devices to save these restored hard drive data.

Step 4. After recovering files from your disk, now you can format your hard drive to fix the error 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it'.

Where your external storage device is RAW or inaccessible, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is able to recover the data on it for you. Besides, this software also supports deleted file recovery, formatted recovery, recycle bin emptied data recovery, OS crash recovery, and more on laptop/PC, external hard drive, SD card, USB, memory card, etc.

What Happens When I Format My Hard Drive Hard Drive

Conclusion

In addition to 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it', there are other formatting related problems that may happen to your external storage device, like 'the format did not complete successfully' or 'disk is not formatted'. In these situations, it's a good choice to download a data recovery tool on your computer that will rescue your data once you've got your files lost. Always remember, the quicker you perform data recovery, the higher chance you will retrieve your data.