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Windows 10 will not "Quick Format" a 3TB HDD

Anonymous
2018-11-08T23:56:47+00:00

I moved a 3TB HDD from a Windows 7 Pro computer to my new Windows 10 Pro computer.  Rather than delete all the data, I thought it would be quicker to just do a Quick Format.  I was wrong.  Disk Management just sat there doing nothing for over 45 minutes.  I deleted all partitions in the drive and created one large partition and tried again.  Same results.

I removed the HDD from the new computer and installed it in the old (Windows 7) computer.  I did a Quick Format in a few seconds.  I put the newly formatted HDD in the new computer and I'm in business.

What is the difference?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T13:37:41+00:00

    moderators help me, i could not able to create new post  under discussions nor questions. I have latest drivers information

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T10:02:54+00:00

    Hi David,

    Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

    The time for Quick Format always depends on the size of the hard drive. As you mentioned that the size of the hard drive is 3 TB. So it will take certain amount of depending on the computer’s configuration as well. 

    However, it is possible that your 3TB HDD is MBR (master boot record) disk. You can check it in Disk Management, which only supports 2TB drive. That would be the reason the Windows 10 was unable to perform Quick Format on 3 TB HDD. You can try to convert an MBR disk into a GPT disk and check if Quick format is working.

    We can suggest you to update the storage drivers of the computer from the manufacturer’s website which will increase the support capacity above 2TB.

    Hope it helps.

    Rohit Raina

    Microsoft Community - Moderator

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T14:37:13+00:00

    New computer.  All drivers up to date - verified.

    Why could Windows 7 QF the drive in seconds?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-11-09T13:33:45+00:00

    your computer must be  boot in UEFI mode and you must have installed 64bit windows , then only 3tb supports supports quick format

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