How to Quickly Format an SSD in Windows 7/8/10/11 for Free (3 Ways)

If you already see your SSD in File Explorer and you still want to format it, right-click it, select Format, and skip to step 4.

How to Format an SSD Drive

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Formatting an SSD drive is useful in the event you want to sell the drive, dispose of the drive, or install a new operating system. You can format an SSD drive using a Windows or Mac computer.

Method 1 of 2:

Formatting an SSD Drive in Windows

Verify that the SSD drive you want formatted is either installed in your computer, or attached to your computer via USB cable.

Go to “Start” and click on “Control Panel.”
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Click on “System and Maintenance,” then click on “Administrative tools.”
Open the “Computer Management” application.
Click on “Disk Management” in the left pane of the Computer Management window.
Click on the name of your SSD drive in the list of drives displayed on-screen.
Right-click on the SSD drive, then select “Format.”
Select your preferred values from the “File system” and “Allocation unit size” drop-down menus.

Place a checkmark next to “Perform a quick format,” then click on “OK.” Your computer will format your SSD drive.

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Method 2 of 2:

Formatting an SSD Drive on Mac OS X

Verify that the SSD drive you want formatted is either installed in your computer, or attached to your computer via USB cable.

Open Finder to verify that the SSD drive displays in your list of devices.
Click on “Applications,” then click on “Utilities.”
Launch the “Disk Utility” application.
Click on the name of your SSD drive in the left pane of Disk Utility.

Click on the “Erase” tab, then take note of the value next to “Partition Map Scheme,” which is located at the bottom of the window.

If the value next to Partition Map Scheme reads, “GUID Partition Table,” select “Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)” from the Format drop-down menu, click on “Erase,” then skip to step #13.

Select the number of partitions you want from within the “Partition Layout” drop-down menu.

Type a name for the partition, or SSD drive, under “Partition Information,” then select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format drop-down menu.

Click on the name of the SSD drive in the middle window, then click on “Options.”
Select “GUID Partition Table,” then click on “OK.”
Click on “Apply,” then click on “Partition” to verify that you want to format your SSD drive.

Wait for Disk Utility to format your SSD drive. The name of the drive will display in Finder when complete. [1] X Research source

Community Q&A

I only want to enable the operating system and programs on the SSD drive?
jonas ilver
Community Answer
You can use the chrome recovery utility to format storage devices on a Chromebook.

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How to Quickly Format an SSD in Windows 7/8/10/11 for Free (3 Ways)?

Three effective methods enable you to quickly format an SSD disk to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT in Windows 10/8/7 for free. Format SSD from BIOS, secure erase SSD, clean SSD drive, etc. are involved.

By Dervish / Last Updated May 5, 2023

Why format SSD?

An SSD stands for “Solid State Drive”. It’s a type of disk which stores mediums in the computer. Compared with traditional hard disk, it has many advantages. Like a hard disk, an SSD must be divided into one or more partitions to store data. Thus, formatting an SSD also means formatting SSD partition.

As SSD becomes more and more common, formatting or reformatting becomes important as well. For example, a computer may run slowly after being used for a long time. A lot of useless programs, accumulative viruses, corrupt files and so on can all be problems. You may need a clean installation of Windows, Then, a proper SSD formatting is a good choice, which will clean the SSD so that you can get rid of a virus, your computer can run faster or you can upgrade system.

Here are three effective methods introduced to help you format an SSD.

How to format SSD in Windows 7/8/10/11?

Before formatting an SSD: Formatting means deleting everything. So if you have important data on SSD, please backup them first. By the way, free AOMEI Backupper can deal with it.

Method 1. Format SSD with Disk Management

Step 1: Press “Win+R” to open “Run” box, and then type “diskmgmt.msc” to open Disk Management.

Step 2: Right click the SSD partition (here is E drive) you want to format. Choose “Format”.

Step 3: You can change settings in the pop-up window, such as label the partition, change file system, perform a quick format. Then click “OK”.

Tips: Only the partition whose size is smaller than or equal to 32GB can be formatted from NTFS to FAT32 through Disk Management.

Step 4: A warning about data loss will appear. Click “OK” after your confirmation to execute.

Method 2. Format SSD via DiskPart

Step 1: Press “Win+R” to open “Run” box, and then type “cmd” to open Command Prompt.

Notice: To format SSD from BIOS, you need to access Command Prompt from BIOS first. Windows Installation Disc, Repair Disc, or Advanced Startup will be helpful. Then, follow these commands to format the SSD.

Step 2: Input these syntax successively, and press Enter after each command.

diskpart
list volume
select volume n (where n is the partition number of your SSD drive)
format fs=ntfs quick label=test (or you can type “fs=fat32” to format SSD to FAT32)
exit

Tips: To clean an SSD drive, you can try these syntax: diskpart > list disk > select disk n (where n is the disk number of SSD) > clean > exit.

With Windows built-in tools, system partition and boot partition are not allowed to be formatted. You will find the option “Format” is greyed out when right click C drive.

However, if you do need to format system partition for a clean installation of Windows, you can realize it under the help of third-party partition manager – such as AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which provides the utility “Make Bootable Media” that helps you create a bootable USB/CD to start your computer from Windows PE where you can format system partition.

Method 3. Format SSD with Free AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a free partition manager software which can manage your hard disk partitions easily. It even allows you to format a partition larger than 32GB from NTFS to FAT32.

Step 1: Download AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Install and launch it. Then, right click the SSD partition you want to format. Select “Format”.

Step 2: Here you’re able to name partition and change file system, and then click “OK” to continue.

Step 3: Don’t forget to click “Apply” on the toolbar to commit the operation.

Note: Formatting C drive or system drive will make operating system unbootable. Think twice before you leap.

Besides, free AOMEI Partition Assistant supports write zeros to hard drive which known as a kind of low level format. Try the feature if the need ever arise.

Verdict

The aforementioned three ways apply to almost all popular SSD drives such as Samsung SSD, Crucial SSD, etc. In fact, formatting doesn’t really erase the data on SSD before you write new data on it. They can still be found by some data recovery software. If you intend to sell or donate your SSD, deleting all data on SSD permanently is necessary, AOMEI Partition Assistant also has the function like wipe partition. Once it’s carried out, the data won’t be found by any data recovery software.

By the way, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard version is widely used by home users. More advanced features such as allocate free space, convert dynamic disk to basic, SSD secure erase, etc, are available in AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional edition or the Server edition.

Free Partition Manager

Resize and Move Partition
System/Disk Clone
Convert MBR/GPT Disk
Check & Fix Disk Errors

How to Format an SSD

Jeremy Laukkonen is automotive and tech writer for numerous major trade publications. When not researching and testing computers, game consoles or smartphones, he stays up-to-date on the myriad complex systems that power battery electric vehicles .

Updated on July 14, 2021
Reviewed by

Western Governors University

Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years’ experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.

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What to Know

In Windows: Open Disk Management, right-click the SSD, and select Format.
In macOS: Open Disk Utility, select the SSD and click Erase.
If your drive is pre-formatted NTFS, Macs can read but not write to it unless you reformat it.

This article explains how to format an SSD, including instructions for formatting an SSD on Windows 10 and formatting an SSD on macOS.

How Do I Format an SSD in Windows 10?

There are two ways to format an SSD on Windows 10. The easiest is to right-click the drive in File Manager and select Format. However, this isn’t an option if the drive hasn’t been formatted yet, as it won’t show up in File Explorer. In that case, you need to format the drive using Disk Management.

If you already see your SSD in File Explorer and you still want to format it, right-click it, select Format, and skip to step 4.

Here’s how to format an SSD on Windows 10 using Disk Management:

Install your new internal SSD, or connect your new external SSD via USB.

If the drive doesn’t appear, or you don’t see the Format option, that means it hasn’t been partitioned yet. In that case, partition your new drive before returning to these instructions.

NTFS is the best option for Windows PCs. If you need to use your drive on both Windows and macOS, choose exFat.

This is your last chance to make sure you don’t format the wrong drive.

How Do I Format an SSD in macOS?

You format SSD drives on macOS through the Disk Utility app. If you have a new internal SSD or an SSD that wasn’t explicitly formatted for macOS, then you’ll want to format it.

Here’s how to format an SSD on macOS:

Install your new internal SSD, or connect your new external SSD via USB.

Access Disk Utility by searching with Spotlight, or navigate to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

AFPS: Use this if you have a post-2017 Mac and won’t share the drive with a Windows machine
Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Use this if you have a pre-2017 Mac and won’t share the drive with a Windows machine
exFAT: Use this if you need to share the drive with a Windows machine.

Do You Need to Format a New SSD?

Whether or not you need to format a new SSD depends on a handful of factors. If the drive isn’t formatted at all, then you need to format it. If the drive is formatted with the file system you want, then formatting is optional. If it’s formatted but it has the wrong file system, then you need to format it.

Internal SSDs are typically unformatted, while external SSDs are usually already formatted when you buy them. However, the drive may not be formatted with the correct file system. If you only use Macs and buy an SSD that’s formatted for use with Windows, you’ll want to format it with the AFPS file structure, even if it’s already pre-formatted.

How do I format an SSD with an OS on it?

If your SSD has a copy of a Windows OS version on it, you will format it as described above, which is a process that will wipe out the disk’s entire contents, including the OS. However, if you’re trying to reformat the drive on which you’re running your computer’s OS, you’ll receive an error that reads, “You cannot format this volume. It contains the version of Windows you are using. Formatting this volume could cause your computer to stop working.”

How do I format an SSD in Windows 7?

Formatting an SSD uses the same process in Windows 7, 8, and 10 (described above). First, open Disk Management, right-click the SSD, and select Format, then follow the prompts.

How do I format an SSD from BIOS?

If you want to securely erase an SSD and are concerned that formatting the SSD will still leave behind data fragments, you may have an option to erase the SSD from the BIOS securely. However, this option isn’t standard; the secure erase option is typically on less common motherboards or dedicated gaming machines. If your computer supports this option, you’d enter your BIOS or UEFI settings, select your drive, then look for and select a Secure Erase option and follow the prompts.