To format a hard drive before you start using it in Windows, use the Disk Management utility; on a Mac, use Disk Utility.

As you probably know, formatting a hard drive doesn't completely erase the data on it. You must overwrite the data to securely destroy it, preferably ...

In this guide, we'll show you the steps to format a USB flash drive on Windows 11 using File Explorer, Settings app, Disk Management tool, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.