How To Format a GPT Partition?

Written by gigmocha in Uncategorized

How To Format a GPT Partition?

Overview:

As we all know, from time to time one computer gets into a mess that only few people can get back to normal status. That problem is usually caused by viruses or bad sectors on the hard drive, however, there is another common issue: the FAT32 partition becomes a RAW file system.

Some users may say the solution is re-install Windows while some others say just format or chkdsk /r . You should always remember that formatting will delete everything on your device so please do not perform this action without any backup file. I think most people would avoid the danger and just go to the Windows Repair Tool for help.

GPT Partition:

GPT stands for GUID Partition Table. This type of partition is commonly used on Windows Vista, 7 and later operating systems including the latest Windows 10. 

GPT models support hard drives larger than 2TB (Terabytes). However, this feature will not work on BIOS-based devices including DVD, CD-ROM drive, USB flash drive, etc because it will be seen as MBR.

GPT vs MBR:

MBR stands for Master Boot Record. This type of partition table is also commonly used on Windows XP, 2000, Linux distributions and other previous versions of Microsoft Operating System. While the GPT file system is a more modern structure that supports bigger hard drives size and default performance better with large file size.

In some cases, you have to format the GPT partition as NTFS, but once you do it you will not be able to boot into Windows because the installer only supports one single partition type during the installation process.

So, you will need to convert the GPT drive back to MBR first before formatting it.

Format GPT Partition:

  1. First, create a Windows PE bootable media. You may use something like Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool or WinSetupFromUSB to accomplish this step.
  2. Then you need another Windows 10 computer with network connection because the tool requires downloading some files from the internet before it could successfully run.
  3. Plug in your USB drive into your PC and install everything that is required by the wizard until you are asked to specify an ISO file location.
  4. Once you have found the ISO image file, finish the installation process to create a bootable media on your USB drive Run command prompt as administrator from Windows PE environment Type diskpart and press Enter If no partition exists, type list disk .
  5. It will show all available hard drives attached to your device including external storage such as memory stick With the select disk 0 command, you are able to identify the USB drive that you have inserted. To find out whether your USB drive is listed by this command or not, type list disk again Once you have found out which disk number represents your USB drive, type “Clean”.
  6. Now the GPT partition will be formatted into NTFS file system and all data on it would be wiped off. When the process completes, format your USB device again using https://rufus.akeo.ie/downloads just in case there is something wrong with its formatting feature because this program does a good job at formatting storage devices even if it’s a very small size like 1MB. At last, install Windows 10 from scratch without any problem and please remember to backup all your data first.

Edit: if you want to know the command to run on diskpart, just type list disk and press enter. It will show every available disk with a number.

Only on a USB drive is a very simple method to do this. You just need to use Diskpart (disk partition) tool, click here diskpart command list all your hard drives with their sizes and then type clean the clean command will delete everything on your usb drive you can’t use any data after formatting gpt usb.

Conclusion:

The Format command erases every byte of data that is contained on the partition. Formatting will make your USB drive with a raw file system such as NTFS or FAT32 and all data would be gone forever. So, you need to backup all important files before using the Format command.

You can’t actually format or delete GPT partitions in Disk Management or other programs. However, you can do that by using diskpart command line tool which is available for free download on Microsoft website.

Please note that when you are asked to select the disk 0, it means your USB drive with Windows 10 bootable media has been detected successfully. At last, you need to remember that all data on gpt usb is gone forever once the process completes so backup everything beforehand.

The best solution is formatting gpt usb stick after installing Windows 10 from scratch without any problem with another computer because if you want to install Windows 10 using your PC then the system will detect only one type of partition during installation which is most likely MBR partition. So you should convert GPT to MBR before installing Windows 10.

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