Which File System Should You Use?
Before you format your USB drive, you need to think about which file system you should use. File systems are ways of organizing data on a storage device (such as a hard drive or an SD card). Support for various file systems varies depending on your operating system. Windows 10 and 11 offer three file system options when formatting a USB drive: FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. Here is a breakdown of the pros and cons of each file system. Next, let’s take a look at some ways you can format your USB drive in Windows 10 and 11.
1. Format USB Drive From File Explorer
The most popular way to format a storage device, and arguably one of the easiest, is directly through Windows’ built-in File Explorer utility. The process is the same for both internal and external storage devices. To format a USB drive this way: Note: most storage media today are tuned for 4096 bytes.
2. Format USB Drive From the Device Manager
If, for some reason, Windows didn’t assign a letter to your USB drive, or its file system was corrupted, it may not show up in File Explorer. Thankfully, it’s easy to format it from the Disk Management app.
Formatting Your Drive
3. Format USB Drive From the Command Prompt
If you prefer the command line, you can format a USB drive with the diskpart command in PowerShell or Command Prompt. This tool is basically the command-line equivalent of the Disk Management application used in the previous section. Replace “Drive Letter” with the letter you want to use.
4. Format USB Drive With Modern PowerShell Tools
The modern command-line warrior will probably prefer PowerShell’s specialized commands for the job at hand.
5. Format USB Drive the Traditional Way
As with many other things in life, when formatting a USB drive, sometimes the old way is also the easiest and the best. This method has existed since legacy Windows operating systems and still works like a charm. Note that this only works in existing partitions by erasing their contents, which allows you to choose a different file system and set a volume label. As with all other methods, you can also opt for a full or quick format.
6. Format USB Drive With External Software
While the native Windows methods are sufficient to address any hard drive/USB drive formatting issues, it may be worth considering external software if you’re looking for extra functionalities. We recommend EaseUS Partition Master for this reason. It is very useful in the following cases:
When your USB has turned into the RAW format, making it totally out of bounds for any formatting procedure using Windows methodsYour USB is showing an error message that reads: “the disk is write-protected”Other errors are accumulating in the pen drive due to Windows being unable to complete the formatting process
While EaseUS Partition Master is trialware, its USB formatting option is free to use. Follow these instructions to use it for formatting: Image credit: Arun Prakash via Unsplash All screenshots by Sayak Boral
