When you’re ready, click the “OK” button. In the “Format” window, type a volume label, specify a file system, and choose whether you want to perform a quick format or not. RELATED: What is the Difference Between a Quick and Full Format? Right-click a volume and choose the “Format” option. Just be aware that you’ll lose all the data when you format a volume. You can format a volume whether the volume has already been formatted or not. Using Disk Management to do this provides all the same options as the regular format tool you access through File Explorer, so whichever you want to use is up to you. You can also use Disk Management to format a volume. RELATED: How to Assign a Persistent Drive Letter to a USB Drive in Windows How to Erase or Format a Volume You can also use this same basic process to assign a permanent drive letter to a removable drive or remove a volume’s drive letter and hide it. And if you select a disk or volume in the bottom pane, the top pane jumps to show the corresponding volume there, too.

The bottom pane shows a graphical representation of your disks and the volumes that exist on each disk. If you select a volume in the top pane, the bottom pane jumps to show the disk that contains that volume.

The top pane shows you a list of your volumes. The “Disk Management” window is divided into two panes. The quickest way to launch the Disk Management tool is by hitting Start, typing “partition” into the search box, and then clicking the “Create and format hard disk partitions” option that comes up. You can use the Disk Management tool to resize, create, delete and format partitions and volumes, as well as change their drive letters-all without downloading or paying for any other software.

RELATED: Beginner Geek: Hard Disk Partitions Explained There are tons of third-party partition managers for Windows, but did you know that Windows includes its own? Microsoft did a good job of hiding the Disk Management tool, but it’s there.

Windows disk management tool