How do you format and partition a new SATA hard drive in Windows 10?

2 Initialize the drive

The next step is to initialize the drive, which involves assigning it a partition style. MBR (Master Boot Record) is an older partition style with some limitations, such as a maximum of four primary partitions and a maximum size of 2 TB. On the other hand, GPT (GUID Partition Table) is newer and more flexible, allowing up to 128 primary partitions and larger sizes. To initialize the drive, press Windows + X and select Disk Management from the menu. In the lower pane, right-click the unallocated space on the new drive and select Initialize Disk. In the pop-up window, choose MBR or GPT as the partition style and click OK.

3 Create partitions

After initializing the drive, you can create partitions on it. A partition is a section of the drive that can have its own drive letter, file system, and label. To create partitions, you can follow the steps in Disk Management: right-click the unallocated space on the new drive and select New Simple Volume. Then specify the size of the partition in MB, assign a drive letter to it, choose a file system (such as NTFS or FAT32) and a volume label for the partition. Finally, review the settings and click Finish to complete the process. Depending on your needs and preferences, you can create one or more partitions.