You also need to further partition and format the drive, which will surely erase all your disk data. Besides, only initializing a disk won’t make the disk usable. When you add a brand new disk to your computer and it does not show up in File Explorer, you need to initialize it before using it. Initialize Disk to MBR or GPT in Windows 10?
Bonus Tip: How to Safely Format or Erase a Disk in Windows 10/11Īside from CDs and DVDs, disks like internal or external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc., are becoming the trendy storage devices for burning OS, saving, transferring files, and backing up data among worldwide ordinary users.įormatting or erasing a hard drive is somehow a must for some specific usages. If the "Erase" feature doesn't appear while using one of the outlined methods, it's possible you have a CD or DVD (able to be written one time only) and not a CD-RW or DVD-RW (rewritable). Step 4: On the toolbar, click "Erase this disc", and then follow the steps in the wizard to successfully erase, clear, or wipe CD or DVD. Step 3: In Windows Explorer, click the DVD drive icon. Step 2: Go to "Start", clicking "This PC". Step 1: Insert the rewritable disc into your computer. In case some users don't know how to erase a DVD disk, here we list the detailed steps:
To get this job done, you can use the Windows 10 operating system's formatting tools. Erase a CD/DVD disc in Windows 10/11Īs mentioned before, if you want to format a used CD-RW/DVD-RW, you need to erase the data already on the disc first. Step 6: Click "OK" to continue the process. Step 5: Click "Start", you will see a warning message about deleting all data on the drive.
Step 3: Find and right-click on the CD/DVD drive icon, then click "Format." Step 2: Click "This PC" on your computer.
(If your computer doesn't have a CD drive, buy an external one.) Step 1: Insert the CD-RW or DVD-RW into your computer. (Here the disk should be a rewritable CD or DVD which allows you to format and rewrite data.) How to Format a CD/DVD in Windows 10/11 Here we will show you how to do it step by step. The process of formatting your DVD or CD is fairly simple.
Why Do You Need to Format or Erase CD/DVDsĪs time moves forward, CDs and DVDs seem to be leftover when more portable storage devices like SD cards, USB flash drives, portable external hard drives come out.