How to format a hard drive using Flash drive

satyre · Post by **satyre** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:38 pm

I need to format only C: partition in a hard drive which has multiple partitions..

The DVD drive doesn’t read any disk at all, so I can’t use the OS disc to boot it and format. I replaced it with another CD drive to test it, but that also didn’t work. It just eject the disc and say insert a disc. So it is not the problem with the DVD drive physically but something to do with OS corruption, I guess.

Now I want to format and reinstall the OS. I don’t have another PC either to slave the hard drive to format.

I used the Rufus bootable USB drive and booted. When I type format c: , it says wrong command. I don’t know how to proceed from there...

Would anyone explain how to make a bootable USB drive?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:53 pm

If you cannot boot from a CD..it's not corruption of the original hard drive C partition, as you're booting from the CD(optical drive).
If you boot from USB to install an OS, you can format from there in advanced options. delete exiting partitons, format 'em.

satyre · Post by **satyre** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:07 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:If you cannot boot from a CD..it's not corruption of the original hard drive C partition, as you're booting from the CD(optical drive).
If you boot from USB to install an OS, you can format from there in advanced options. delete exiting partitons, format 'em.

YOS, Would you explain further? Can't I format the C partition using a bootable flash drive?

I was thinking of formatting the C with bootable flash drive, then boot with the OS disc to install as usual.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:00 pm

just boot to the OS CD and format from there, or from a OS thumbdrive made for that purpose

Post by **Philip** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:08 pm

You can format from a bootable USB flash drive, provided the BIOS is set to boot from USB drives, the USB drive is bootable, and it's boot order in the BIOS is before the hard drive.

satyre · Post by **satyre** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:19 pm

Philip wrote:You can format from a bootable USB flash drive, provided the BIOS is set to boot from USB drives, the USB drive is bootable, and it's boot order in the BIOS is before the hard drive.

Yes, I booted with Flash drive and I got the DOS prompt. DOS prompt is c:> So, what should I do from there to format the hard drive?

Post by **Philip** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 8:57 pm

Using diskpart:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0

list volume
select volume NN
delete partition <-- this will delete the selected volume partition (where volume NN is the number of the volume you want to delete)

Alternatively, you can use the format command:

format c: /q

RenesisXI · Post by **RenesisXI** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 10:40 am

Install Ubuntu on a USB drive then boot into Ubuntu, open "Disks" then you can see all partitions and you can format.