I'm trying to format a drive, and it's been 3 hours, but it's only at 24%. I've heard it shouldn't take more than 3 hours to finish. I'm using the option that doesn't require a connection. Is this typical?
2 Answers
The time it takes to format really depends on your device and the size of the drive. If you picked a quick format, it should be much faster. For instance, formatting a large 4TB drive can take a while, while a smaller 512GB NVMe drive will finish quickly. Just give it some time—interrupting it could cause issues that require you to reformat later.
Formatting also varies based on the type of hard drive you're using. Are you using a traditional spinning disk or an SSD? Spinners can go up to around 300-750MB/s, while NVMe drives can blaze through at over 7,000 MB/s. Make sure you selected quick format; otherwise, if you've opted for multiple pass erase options, that could extend your wait significantly. The size of the drive matters too—1TB or larger drives can take a long time with more secure erase processes.
I’ve actually switched to SSD a while back, so that’s not the issue. I have about 2TB (1+1) and it’s crawled to 27% since I posted this.