The problem “You need to format the disk before you can use it” arises when you are trying to access any kind of hard drive on your computer. It could be an internal HDD, external hard drive, SD card, SSD, or other USB drive.

In this blog, we’ll have a look at this issue comprehensively. We’ll understand why this issue occurs and more importantly, we’ll delve into some of the best ways to fix the issue.

Reasons Behind The Error “You Need To Format The Disk Before You Can Use It”

• A corrupted file system is often the root cause behind the error “You need to format the disk before you can use it”. We have already covered a comprehensive blog on how to fix file system errors in Windows.
• Talking of file systems, if the drive you are using has an incompatible Windows file system such as APFS or HFS+, you are likely to receive the error in question.
• Did this happen – You tried to format your hard drive, and it was interrupted by a system crash or power failure, or you removed the drive before the format was complete? All in all, if the format was interrupted regardless of the reason, you may get the error “You need to format the disk before you can use it”
• Bad sectors on the drive can also be the culprit behind the error. We have covered a post on bad sectors that simply explains the concept of bad sectors as well as how you can get rid of them easily.

Now you have a basic idea of why you may get the error. Let’s have a look at some effective steps to fix the error “You need to format the disk before you use it”.

How To Fix “You Need To Format The Disk Before You Can Use It” On Windows 11/10 PC?

Solution No. 1 – Check If Disk Is Recognized By Your Computer

You will only be able to access a hard drive on your Windows PC, if it has sufficient storage and uses a file system acceptable to Windows. Here is how you can ascertain that –

Step 1 – Press Windows + R and open the Run dialog box.

Step 2 – In the dialog box, type diskmgmt.msc.

Step 3 – Check whether or not you can see the drive in Disk Management. You also need to ensure that the drive has a Windows-recognizable file system and has enough storage space.

Solution No. 2 – Run CHKDSK

CHKDSK is a simple command that you can run via the administrative Command Prompt. It can help you get rid of any drive errors that may be leading to the error at hand –

Step 1 – Open the administrative Command Prompt by typing cmd in the Windows search bar and selecting Run as administrator from the right-hand side.  

Step 2 – Type the command mentioned below. Replace the letter X with the affected drive letter.

chkdsk X: /r /f

Step 3 – Press Enter.

Solution No. 3 – Use The Error Checking Tool

Another way you can check errors on the disk is to open the affected hard drive and check it for any errors by entering its properties. Here are the steps to do that –

Step 1 – Open File Explorer

Step 2 – Right-click on the affected drive and select Properties.

Step 3 – Click on the Tools tab.

Step 4 – Under Error checking click on Check.

Solution No. 4 – Scan the Hard Drive for Virus

There have been virus infections in the past that could damage hard drives. So, if you are still getting the “You need to format the disk” error for no apparent reason, you can check your PC for potential presence of malware.

Solution No. 5 – Format Your Hard Drive

If nothing else seems to work, you can go ahead with formatting the disk as the last resort. But, you may be wondering – Wouldn’t this delete all of my data? Would I be able to recover it?

Here’s hope. You can use a data recovery tool like Advanced Disk Recovery. It is a data recovery solution that can help you restore files across all formats such as audio files, documents, photos, and others even from formatted disks.

To recover data using Advanced Disk Recovery –

Step 1 – Download Advanced Disk Recovery  from the button down below and run the installation file.

Step 2 – Click on the Hard Drive radio button, under Select the areas to be scanned for deleted files and folders.

You can also choose a different drive based on your requirements.

Step 3 – Click on the dropdown under Select Drive and select the drive letter of the affected drive.

Step 4 – Click on Start Scan Now.

Step 5 – Choose the mode of scan depending on how in-depth you want the scanning to be. Again, click on Scan now.

Step 6 – Once the scan is complete, you will see a list of files you can recover.

Step 7 – Select the files that you want to restore, and click on the Recover button.

Please Note – It is advisable to save recovered files to a location other than the original location from where they were lost. This helps prevent the overwriting of recovered data.

Did Things Go Smoothly

We hope all went well and now you can access the drive you want or at least you have been able to recover or access the data you wanted. Do share your experience in the comments section below. For more such content, keep reading Tweak Library.