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Hard drives must be formatted (and usually a file system must be set up) before they can be used to store data. There's normally no need to reformat a drive unless something significant changes.

For example, if you decide to repartition a drive, you will (probably) need to reformat the partitions afterward. (The reason for all the weasel words like usually, normally, probably is that not all operating systems and file systems work the same way.)

Also, if a partition becomes corrupted somehow, you may have no choice but to reformat it in order to use it again.

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14y ago

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