Top 5 Best Disk Formatter Software Free Download [Benefits Listed]


Key Takeaways of Best Disk Formatter in Windows:

1. Before getting the best disk formatter, make sure that you understand what will happen if you perform disk formatting.

2. Make sure you back up valuable data before applying the best disk formatter here to format and reformat a hard drive.

On this page, you'll learn what a disk formatter is, what you can do with a disk formatter tool, and its benefits and drawbacks. Most importantly, you'll get the best disk formatter software or tool here to format a hard drive or external storage device successfully with simple clicks.

Best Disk Formatter Cover

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So, how do I get a reliable disk formatter software or program for free? Continue reading, and in the next part, we'll introduce the best disk formatter that you can download for free and apply to format your disk drives with simple clicks.

Top 5 Best Disk Formatters for Windows 11/10 Free Download [2024 Recommend]

Here is a list of the top 5 best disk formatter software and utilities we tested and selected from 50+ similar disk formatting tools for Windows users to apply and format their disks successfully. You may wonder which one is the best disk formatter out of the five listed recommended formatting software and programs, right?

Check the comparison table and find which one suits your needs the most:

Disk Formatter Formatting Level Format Method Supported Formats
1. Qiling Disk Master Free🏆 High-Level Format
  • Quick Format
  • Full Format
  • NTFS
  • FAT12/16/32
  • exFAT
  • EXT2/3/4
  • ReFS
2. File Explorer High-Level Format
  • Quick Format
  • Full Format
  • NTFS
  • FAT32
  • exFAT
3. Disk Management High-Level Format
  • Quick Format
  • Full Format
  • NTFS
  • FAT32
  • exFAT
4. Command Prompt High-Level Format
  • Quick Format
  • Full Format
  • NTFS
  • FAT32
  • exFAT
5. HDD Low-Level Format Tool Low-Level Format
  • Full Format
\

According to this table, it's clear that Qiling Disk Master Free is recommended as it supports most file system formats that can fulfill users' demands of setting up formats to their hard disk drives, SSDs, USB, etc., with ease.

📝Note: As formatting will clean up all saved content, ensure that you create a backup of valuable data in advance. Also, once you've decided to format a hard drive with a favored disk formatter, don't interrupt the formatting process.

#1. Qiling Disk Master Free - Easiest Disk Formatter

Image of Qiling Disk Master

Qiling Disk Master Free Edition is a free partition manager software that enables you to format disk drives and external storage devices for free. It simplifies the process of partitioning hard drives, allocating disk space, and optimizing disk performance in simple clicks. Here are some amazing free features that you may also like aside from formatting disks.

Qiling Disk Master Free Edition is incredibly simple to use, one of many reasons that you should consider it when looking for a good free disk partitioning tool. - posted by Tim Fisher from LifeWire

Free Features:

01

Pros:

  • 24*7 free tech support
  • Email support: support@idiskhome.com
  • Easy to use with stylish UI design
  • 100% secure, free, and user-friendly
  • Fully support Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista
  • Stable and safe, regularly updated with sophisticated algorithms.
02

Cons:

  • Doesn't support macOS
  • Some advanced features like Migrate OS to HDD/SSD require activation.

Verdict:

Qiling Disk Master Free offers a simple-to-follow interface that all Windows users can use to format their internal and external hard drives successfully.

Guide to Format Hard Disk for Free:

Step 1. Run Qiling Disk Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose "Format".

Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 1

Step 2. In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted.

Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 2

Step 3. Click the "Proceed" button to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 4

Step 4. Then you will see a warning window, click "Yes" in it to continue.

#Disk Formatter#Free Disk Formatter Software#Free Formatting Software#Windows

#2. File Explorer - Windows Beginners' Disk Formatter

Windows File Explorer

File Explorer provides Windows users with straightforward access to format hard disk drives on their own. All levels of Windows users could apply to format their hard drive partitions in File Explorer.

Free Features:

01

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use, 100% free
  • Doesn't require software installation
  • Quick to access
02

Cons:

  • Doesn't support EXT2/3/4
  • Can't format large drive 32GB+ to FAT32
  • Can't format a raw drive

Verdict:

Windows File Explorer is provided by Microsoft to enable users quickly access their storage devices by pressing the Windows + E keys. If you simply want to format a small-sized storage device to NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT, you can try this method.

Guide to Format Hard Disk for Free:

Format disk with File Explorer

Note that if Windows pops up the error message "Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format", it could be multiple reasons that caused this issue. You may directly turn to Qiling Disk Master, as recommended above, to fix this issue and format your disk instantly.

#Drive Formatter#Free Disk Formatter#Free HDD Formatter#Windows

#3. Disk Management

Image of Disk Management

Disk Management is similar to File Explorer but does more than formatting disk partitions. Disk Management is more than a disk formatter. It offers multiple disk partitioning features to Windows users. To check more features in this tool, check the list below.

Free Features:

01

Pros:

  • Simple to use
  • All features are free
  • Fulfill basic disk management partitioning demands
02

Cons:

  • Not for beginners.
  • Doesn't support EXT2/3/4.
  • Easy to make mistakes for Windows beginners.

Verdict:

Disk Management enables experienced Windows users to make full use of disk space on Windows computers successfully. However, it requires you to be very careful while partitioning hard drives, especially when you plan to delete or format a hard drive partition.

Guide to Format Hard Disk for Free:

Format disk with disk management

#Free Disc Formatter#Windows Disk Formatter#Hard Drive Formatting Software#Windows

Bonus Tip: Sometimes, you may find that the format option in Disk Management is not available due to some reasons. To fix this issue, you can follow the tutorial guide here for help.

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Fix Disk Management Format Option Greyed Out in Windows

We provide you with three useful solutions to repair and fix the format option not available in disk management on your Windows 11/10, 8.1, 8, 7 PC.

image of format disk

#4. Command Prompt - Administrative Disk Formatter

Command Prompt is a command line disk formatting tool that most Windows administrators prefer to use. It executes disk partitioning and volume formatting tasks.

Free Features:

01

Pros:

  • Free-to-use
  • More than a disk formatter.
02

Cons:

  • Complex to use
  • Doesn't support EXT2/3/4
  • Easy to make mistakes

Verdict:

Command Prompt is highly recommended for Windows administrators to partition and format hard disk drives. As for Windows beginners, take Qiling Disk Master Free or File Explorer as your best shot at formatting storage devices.

Guide to Format Hard Disk for Free:

  1. list disk
  2. select disk * (replace * with the disk number of your target disk.)
  3. list volume
  4. select volume * (replace * with the volume number you tend to format.)
  5. format fs=ntfs quick
  6. exit

format disk with disk[art

#Windows Disk Formatter#Format CMD#Disk Formatter Windows 10#CMD

Sometimes, you may encounter disk formatting errors while running Command Prompt format lines on the target disk. Relax and you may follow the guide here to fix the respective error successfully:

format fs=ntfs Take a Long Time Diskpart Format Stuck at 0

#5. HDD Low-Level Format Tool - Renowned Low-Level Format Software

Image of HDD Low Level Format Tool

HDD Low-Level Format Tool is also known as HDD LLF, which enables users to low-level format Windows 10, Windows 11, or older Windows disk drives and external hard drives to their original state.

Free Features:

01

Pros:

  • Easy to use.
  • Low-level format hard disk drives to their original state.
02

Cons:

  • Not for beginners.
  • May cause physical damage to hard disk drives when used too frequently.

Verdict:

Low-level disk formatter software - HDD Low-Level Format Tool is not for beginners. Experienced users should also be careful while using this tool to format storage devices. To fully format hard drives or storage devices so as to clean up existing data at once, you are recommended to try the former 4 disk formatters.

Guide to Format Hard Disk for Free:

low level format disk

#Free HDD Low Level Format Tool#LLF Disk Formatter#Format Program

What Is Disk Formatter?

disk formatter reddit:
Hello! Do you guys know of a third-party software that will perform a full format, just like windows does?Or it doesnt exist?Preferably at least the equivalent to what Windows does, or better, if there is such a software." - posted by u/an1991Ro from Reddit

To understand what a disk formatter is, let's first get to learn what disk formatting means here:

According to Wikipedia, "Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk, memory card, or USB drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems."

So, what is a disk formatter? A disk formatter is a formatting tool or software designed to format a storage device for new usage. During the formatting process, it enables users to assign a new drive letter and file system format to the target device.

Alongside hard disk formatter, you can also find other formatter software designed for formatting SD cards, external hard drives, and USB drives, such as:

SD Card Formatter USB Formatter

What Does Disk Formatter Do?

What can a disk formatter do for you exactly? Here is a list of features and benefits that you can get by using a reliable disk format tool:

Why and When Do I Need Disk Formatter?

According to the benefits listed above, it's clear that a reliable disk formatter can assist you in resolving multiple storage device issues. Here is a list of situations in which you need to turn to a reliable paid or free disk format utility to format your hard disk drives instantly:

Can Disk Formatter Be Free?

So, can a disk formatter program or software be free? Yes, sure!

Most operating system manufacturers have provided one or more built-in free disk formatting tools to assist Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Ubuntu users in formatting their disks for free.

Conclusion

On this page, we recommended 5 best free disk formatters that enable all levels of Windows users to fully format their hard disks, USBs, SSDs, external hard drives, etc., with simple tutorial guides.

For the easiest disk formatter, don't miss Qiling Disk Master. It's more than a simple disk formatter; it's a comprehensive disk manager software for both Windows beginners and Windows administrators.

If you are looking for another guide to format disks on Mac or other operating systems, follow the tutorial guide here for help:

Linux Format Disk Format Disk Mac

FAQs of Best Disk Formatter for Windows

In this part, we collected some hot topics that many users discuss, and if you have a similar question in your mind, follow it and find answers here.

1. What is the best formatting software?

When you search for the best formatting software online, you may get multiple different answers online. Among most paid formatting software, you may want a free formatting utility. Here you can try File Explore, Qiling Disk Master Free, Disk Management, and even CMD to format a disk drive on Windows computers for free.

2. Does formatting a disk clear it?

Yes, formatting a disk does not only change its file system but also a new one. It will also clean up the existing data on the disk and restore the drive to its full size.

3. What is the best program formatting hard drives?

4. What types of format can a drive have?

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