Seeking an easy way formatting a new 4TB HD

Hi all,

Win 10

What would be the easy way to format a new 4TB WD HD?

The new HD will be for data storage ONLY to be shared between Linux and Windows. No OS will be installed on the new HD

Thanks in advance.

Regards

steve108 said:

Hello,

You can use Windows Disk Management if you want to format it. Format Disk or Drive in Windows 10

Hi steve108,

Thanks for your advice and link.

I'm going to format a brand-new internal HD ;
WD 4TB Blue WD40EZAZ SATA3 6Gb/s /256MB Cache HDD

On the link
OPTION THREE
Format Disk or Drive in Command Prompt

Maybe suitable for my application. The new HD will be solely for data storage shared between Windows and Linux. No OS will be installed

Do you to know;
1. No limitation on HD size ?
2. Approx how long will it take formatting a 4TB Hard drive ?

Thanks

Regards

satimis said:

Hi steve108,

Thanks for your advice and link.

I'm going to format a brand-new internal HD ;
WD 4TB Blue WD40EZAZ SATA3 6Gb/s /256MB Cache HDD

On the link
OPTION THREE
Format Disk or Drive in Command Prompt

Maybe suitable for my application. The new HD will be solely for data storage shared between Windows and Linux. No OS will be installed

Do you to know;
1. No limitation on HD size ?
2. Approx how long will it take formatting a 4TB Hard drive ?

Thanks

Regards

No capacity limit. I would suggest doing a quick format since it's a brand new drive. I'm not sure how long it will take, but I would guess less than an hour.

Hi steve108

Performed following steps:-

1) Disconnect Drive-1 (linux OS, VirtualBox), Drive-2 (Linux OS), Drive-4 (Storage disc, ext4) and Drive 5 (storage disc, ext4), leaving Drive-3 connected (Win 10)

2) Connect the new 4TB WD disc

3) Start PC. BIOS detects the new disc

4) After booting up Win 10

5) Device Manager found the new disc - WDC WD40EZAS-OOSF3BO
(Samsung 859 EVO 500GB - Win10 disc)

6) list volume can't find the new disc

Please refer to attached photos

Regards

spunk said:

When you attach a blank never been used drive to your computer and start Disk Management, a New Disk Wizard appears and asks if your want to Initialize the drive as GPT or as MBR. Then it will create a partition and ask how to Format. If sharing between Linux and Windows exFAT or NTFS is best.
Or as stated, you can use a 3rd party all like Minitool or any other Partitioning software that some find easier.

Hi spunk,

Thanks for your advice.

I just expect learning how to do it on Command Prompt, something new to me.

AddRam on post #5 has advised me Minitool. Thanks for his assistance to help me.

Is it possible to do it on Command Prompt ?

Actually in Linux environment running "fdisk" I can get the job done in 2 steps. But I'm interested learning the Windows way running Command Prompt.

Regards

Open Command Prompt with administrative privileges and execute the following commands.

Code:

Diskpart

List disk

select disk n (n means the disk number, replace it with your 4TB disk number)

clean (clear all partitions on the selected disk)

convert gpt

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs

assign

exit

Use Diskpart command with care.

FreeBooter said:

Open Command Prompt with administrative privileges and execute the following commands.

Code:

Diskpart

List disk

select disk n (n means the disk number, replace it with your 4TB disk number)

clean (clear all partitions on the selected disk)

convert gpt

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs

assign

exit

Use Diskpart command with care.

Hi FreeBooter,

Thanks for your advice.

My problem is "list disk" can't find my new hard drive. It is a brand-new disk.

There is only ONE hard drive in this PC, excluding the hard drive running Win10. I don't think "Diskpart" will format Win10 hard drive.

Regards