force format external hard drive windows 10

Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the below restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume:įAT: Number of clusters <= 65526 FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 268435446įormat will immediately stop processing if it decides that the above requirements cannot be met using the specified cluster size. Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume: Default settings are strongly recommended for general use. Overrides the default allocation unit size. L and /L:enable forces format to use large-size file records, and /L:disable forces format to use small-sized file records. By default, a non-tiered volume will be formatted with small-sized file records, and a tiered volume will be formatted with large-sized file records. NTFS Only: Overrides the default size of file record. UDF 2.50 only: Metadata will be duplicated. All opened handles to the volume would no longer be valid. NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed by default.įorces the volume to dismount first if necessary. Specifies the file system type ( FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, UDF, ReFS). Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name. Windows 10 and Windows 11 syntax FORMAT volume ] įORMAT volume įORMAT volume Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP Recovery Console syntax.Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP syntax.Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 syntax.

Force format external hard drive windows 10