How to Partition, Format or Wipe Hard Drive Without OS

You can easily format, partition, or wipe a partition within the Windows OS. But how to make it happen if your computer has no operating system or OS fails to boot? Such a problem has been resolved by EaseUS Partition Master. You can rely on Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) to boot the computer. And then, format hard drive from BIOS in Windows 10 or wipe hard drive from BIOS. Free download the software and follow the overall process:

• Create a bootable media, which can be an ISO file, USB flash drive or CD/DVD disc
• Boot the non-operating-system computer from the bootable drive
• Format, Partition, or wipe the hard drive for a normal usage

Create a Bootable Drive to Start Computer Without OS in WinPE

Are you looking for a bootable partition manager that enables you to create a bootable drive? When your operating system fails to work and doesn't boot normally, a bootable drive is necessary. What's more, there might be no operating system installed on a newly bought computer. So, what's the best bootable partition manager that helps format, partition, for wipe hard drive without OS easily?

EaseUS Partition Master is designed with a highlighted feature called WinPE Bootable disk. With it, you can create a bootable media, including ISO file, USB flash drive, and CD/DVD. And the bootable drive can load and run the partition manager software under the system. Then you can partition, format, and wipe hard drive without OS.

Now create a bootable drive by following the details below:

• Go and find a working computer. 
• You need to download and install the EaseUS Partition Master to accomplish the essential steps to make a bootable drive.

Step 1. To create a bootable disk of EaseUS Partition Master, you should prepare a storage media, like a USB drive, flash drive or a CD/DVD disc. Then, correctly connect the drive to your computer.

Step 2. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, and find the "Bootable Media" feature on the left. Click on it.

Step 3. You can choose the USB or CD/DVD when the drive is available. However, if you do not have a storage device at hand, you can also save the ISO file to a local drive, and later burn it to a storage media. Once made the option, click the "Create" button to begin.

• Check the Warning message and click "Yes".

Step 4. When the process finishes, you'll see a pop up window, asking if you want to restart computer from the bootable USB.

• Reboot Now: it means you want to restart the current PC and enter EaseUS Bootable Media to manage your disk partitions without OS.
• Done: it means you don't want to restart the current PC but to use the bootable USB on a new PC.

Note: To use the bootable disk on a new PC, you need to resart the target computer and press F2/F8/Del key to enter BIOS, and set the USB bootable disk as the first boot disk.

Wait patitiently and your computer will automatically boot up from the USB bootable media and enter EaseUS WinPE desktop.

Insert the bootable drive in the computer without OS, set the boot order in BIOS to boot the computer from the EaseUS bootable drive with the steps below.

• Restart your computer and press F2 at the same time to enter BIOS
• Set to boot the PC from "Removable Devices" (bootable USB disk) or "CD-ROM Drive" (bootable CD/DVD) beyond Hard Drive
• Press "F10" to save and exit

Then you can see the interface of EaseUS Partition Master. Follow the guides below to format a hard drive without an operating system. 

How to Format Hard Drive Without OS

Usually, in all types of Windows operating systems, you can format a hard drive using the command prompt, the hard drive formatting tool or the Windows Explorer and Windows Disk Management. But things become difficult when you format a hard drive without OS. You can make things easier with the help of EaseUS Partition Master.

Also, insert the bootable drive (you have created it at the very first) and boot from it to enter EaseUS partition tool. Then follow the details:

Step 1: Select a partition.

Step 2: Right-click it and select "Format".

Step 3: Type the label you want in the Partition Label text box. 

Step 4: Select the file system type to be created from the Partition Type drop-down list. (FAT/FAT32, NTFS, ReFS and EXT2/EXT3). Choose the Cluster Size (512 byte,1,2,4…64KB) from drop-down list. 

Step 5: Click "OK" when ready. All the introduced changes to the disk layout will be pended until applied in Pending Operation List.

Also, watch the video tutorial on how to format a hard drive without operating system.

How to Partition Hard Drive Without OS

In addition to format had without OS, you can still use EaseUS Partition Master bootable USB drive to partition a hard drive without operating system: such as move space from D drive to C drive to extend system partition, shrink and merge partitions, delete and create partitions. 

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master to check for free space at the Partition Manager section.

• If your hard drive has unallocated space, jump to Step 3 to create partition.
• If the hard drive has no unallocated space, continue with Step 2.

Step 2. Shrink a disk partition to create unallocated space.

Right-click on the target drive partition with a lot free space and select "Resize/Move".

Drag either end of the partition rightwards or leftwards to shrink the partition size so as to get ample unallocated space. You can visually know how much space you've decreased in the "Partition size" area. Click "OK".

Click "Execute xx Task" and then "Apply" to save all the changes.

Go back to Partition Manager, there should be unallocated space appearing on the same disk and you can continue with the next step to create new partition on your hard drive.

Step 3. Create a new partition with unallocated space on the target hard drive.

 Right-click on the unallocated space and choose "Create".

Customize the partition size, partition drive letter, partition label, file system (NTFS, FAT32, EXT2/3/4, exFAT) and more in the Advanced Settings. Click "OK".

Finally, click "Execute * Task" and "Apply" to complete creating partition with the unallocated space on your disk. Repeat the steps to partition a hard drive and get many more partitions.

How to Wipe Hard Drive Without OS

Wipe Data can erase all the data on the selected partition/disk/unallocated space. In most cases, the data cleaned with this feature are not able to be retrieved. You might need to wipe a hard drive when you don't need it anymore. Use EaseUS BitWiper to wipe hard drive without OS:

Step 1. Run EaseUS BitWiper. Click the "Wipe Disk" tab.

Step 2. Select the targeted HDD or SSD to wipe.

Notice: Please make sure you have chosen the correct HDD or SSD. Once the wiping starts, your data is irrecoverable.

Step 3. Choose Wiping Method and click "Next".

Choose a suitable wiping method. Recommend EaseUS Secure Erase!

Step 4. Check the warning message and click "Wipe" to confirm.

Step 5. Wait for wiping finish and click "Done".

Learn More about EaseUS BitWiper:

To Sum Up

After reading this post, we believe that you've already known how to format hard drive without OS as well as how to partition or wipe a hard drive without the Windows operating system. It's quite easy with the help of EaseUS partition and disk management program.

EaseUS Partition Master Pro makes it easy to partition hard drives with or without OS, making the most of your disk space. You can even use this tool to migrate OS to SSD to speed up Windows, whether moving from small HDD to large SSD or from large HDD to small SSD. 

FAQs About How to Format Hard Drive Without OS 

Here are a few questions related to how to format hard drive without operating systems. If you also have any of these problems, you can find the methods here.

Can I reformat a hard drive from BIOS?

You cannot format a hard drive from BIOS. You can only change the boot order get your computer to check for an OS startup CD, DVD, or USB stick. If you want to format HDD without OS, you have to create a bootable USB flash drive or CD/DVD and boot from it to perform formatting.

How do I format my hard drive without logging into Windows?

You can format hard drive without Windows by creating a bootable USB drive using EaseUS Partition Master. Then, start your computer from the bootable drive to format HDD or SSD.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, go to the "WinPE Creator" feature on the top.

Step 2. You can choose the USB or CD/DVD when the drive is available to create EaseUS Partition Master bootable drive.

Step 3. Insert the bootable drive in the computer without OS, set the boot order in BIOS to boot the computer from the EaseUS bootable drive. Then, format your hard drive in WinPE.

How do I format a blank hard drive?

To format a partition using Disk Management, use these steps:

Step 1. Open Disk Management and right-click the new hard drive and select the "Format" option.

Step 2. In the "Value label" field, type a descriptive name for the drive. Use the "File system" drop-down menu, and select NTFS (recommended for Windows 11/10). Use the "Allocation unit size" drop-down menu, and select the Default option. Check the Perform a quick format option.

Step 3. Click the "OK" button to start formatting your hard drive.

Do you need to format a new hard drive?

Yes, you need to format a hard drive need at first before you can use it. You can use EaseUS formatting tool, Windows Disk Management, or Diskpart command lines to format a hard drive to NTFS, FAT32, or other file systems.

If you encounter the Windows was unable to complete the format issue, turn to the tutorial to fix the problem.