Formatting a USB drive is no different than formatting any other driveHow to Format a New Internal Hard Drive or Solid State DriveHow to Format a New Internal Hard Drive or Solid State DriveIf you have a new HDD or SSD, you should format it. Through formatting, you can wipe old data, malware, bloatware, and you can change the file system. Follow our step-by-step process.Read More. But how often have you actually formatted a drive and did you ever wonder what the various options mean?
Most of us go with the default settings without second-guessing their logic. Naturally, optimal settings depend on the type of hardware to be formatted and what you are planning to do with it.
This article will help you make the best choice. It explains what each option does and which one is best suited for your drive and expected use.
Whether you’re running Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10, the steps are essentially the same.
The formatting options you can customize are File system, Allocation unit size, Volume label, and Format options. You can also Restore device defaults in case your custom settings aren’t working.
To format your drive, you simply make your selection, click Start, followed by OK to confirm that you really want to erase all data and the drive will be formatted.
However, before you proceed with formatting, you will want to understand what each of these options actually means. So let’s go through them one by one.
In Windows 10, you will see a maximum of four different file systems: NTFS, FAT, FAT32, and exFATFAT32 vs. exFAT: What's the Difference and Which One Is Better?FAT32 vs. exFAT: What's the Difference and Which One Is Better?A file system is the tool that lets an operating system read data on any hard drive. Many systems use FAT32, but is that the right one, and is there a better option?Read More. You will actually not see FAT and FAT32 if your drive is larger than 32 GB. So what is the difference between those file systems and which one should you choose? Let’s look at the benefits of each.
Due to its nature, FAT or better yet FAT32 are suitable for drives smaller than 32 GB and in an environment where you never need to store files larger than 2 or 4 GB, respectively. In other words, any regular sized hard drive (60 GB +) should be formatted with NTFS.
However, due to the way NTFS works it is not recommended for flash drives, even when they are bigger than 32 GB. This is where exFAT comes in. It unites the essential advantages of FAT (small, fast) and NTFS (large file size supported) in a way that is optimal for flash drives.
Keep in mind though that FAT and FAT32 are the only file systems that are cross-platform compatible. NTFS is supported by Linux, but it requires a hack or third party application to work on the Mac. exFAT, on the other hand, is supported as of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), but you need drivers to read it on Linux.
If for compatibility or speed reasons you want to go with FAT or FAT32, always go with FAT32, unless you are dealing with a device of 2 GB or smaller.
Hard drives are organized in clusters and the allocation unit size describes the size of a single cluster. The file system records the state of each cluster, i.e. free or occupied. Once a file or a portion of a file is written to a cluster, the cluster is occupied, regardless of whether or not there is still space.
Hence, larger clusters can lead to more wasted or slack spaceHow to Recover Lost Space on a USB DriveHow to Recover Lost Space on a USB DriveIf your USB drive ever shrinks in capacity, there's a very simple solution you can use to restore all of that lost space.Read More. With smaller clusters, however, the drive becomes slower as each file is broken up into smaller pieces and it takes much longer to draw them all together when the file is accessed.
Thus the optimal allocation unit size depends on what you want to do with your USB drive. If you want to store large files on that drive, a large cluster size is better as the drive will be faster. If, however, you want to store small files or run programs off your flash drive, a smaller cluster size will help preserve space.
Rule of thumb: large drive and/or large files = large allocation unit size
For a 500 MB USB flash drive, rather select 512 bytes (FAT32) or 32 kilobytes (FAT). On a 1 TB external hard drive select 64 kilobytes (NTFS).
The volume label simply is the name of the drive. It’s optional and you can basically name your drive anything you want. However, there are a few rules to follow, depending on the file system you’re going to format with.
You can use spaces, regardless of the file system.
The question now is, how are you going to fill that freshly formatted USB drive? You should definitely own a USB repair toolkit! Don’t have enough sticks for all those ideas? These are the fastest USB flash drives5 of the Fastest and Best USB 3.0 Flash Drives5 of the Fastest and Best USB 3.0 Flash DrivesWhich are the fastest USB 3.0 flash drives you can buy? Here are five of the best, ranging from $20 to $200.Read More money can buy.
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During a normal format, files are removed from the drive and the drive is scanned for bad sectors. During the Quick Format, only the files are removed and no scan is performed. Hence go with that option if you don’t have time and are dealing with a healthy or new drive.
If you found this article helpful, you might also want to know how to fix write protection errorsHow to Fix the Disk is Write Protected USB ErrorHow to Fix the Disk is Write Protected USB ErrorIs your USB drive throwing up a disk write protection error? In this article, we explain what that is and how you can fix it.Read More, how to reformat an external hard drive without losing data, or how to format a write-protected USB driveHow to Format a Write Protected USB Flash DriveHow to Format a Write Protected USB Flash DriveCame across a write protected flash drive? Here's how to format your write protected USB flash drive and start using it again.Read More.
What are your experiences with formatting USB drives and what are your preferred settings?
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Explore more about: Disk Partition, Tech Support, USB, USB Drive.
This simplified and made clear the explanation better than any other site out there. Thank you!
Your article is a helpful article, but how can you format a flash drive without deleting anything?
Hello. I bought a Sandisk 64GB SD card to download movies and series from uTorrent on my smartphone. When I download on uTorrent the SD card does not accept large files (15GB - 25GB). I want to know which Allocation Unit Size Works Best?
Is there ant way to recover files from the usb drive that were ereased ? my son was playing with my laptop and now file on usbdrive are gone
my usb hase damaged it is not formatting plz tell me any way
hallo, again same trouble 4 year before mine player inside everything automatically wiped. now it issue the lived im. any menu to pressing im, 'no file' that telling. either inside recuperation being wont. solution?
tina, usb drive not. mp3 player's inside each item(voice, clip, document, song) wipe was. that telling 'warning no file' files where go was? i any couldnt make manually.
So what do you do when you load a USB drive that is supposed to be 4GB and when you go to format Windows only comes up with 18MB as a size option?
I have 2TB USB Flash Drive (USB Stick)... I put files on it but after some time (few minutes) it stops working/transfering and it says: Can't Write.................... Something Something. Help?
Yes you purchased a fake USB drive. It's probably a 32gb flash drive. Google how to test fake USB drives.
Excellent and very expeditious, easy instructions..thank you
i havea usb 512 GB and it was perfect Before when i used it. sudnlly after 2 month i tried to copy som files from the PC to usb, it says that file is copied but when i open it i don't find anything in it. please help?
Maybe the flash drive is fake and corrupts the files after certain GB.
You bought a fake drive, google how to test fake USB flash drive
theres no format button what do i do??
haha
theres no format button help
Hye Tina, i've move files from my pc , then, when to open the Pen drive it ask to format, i don't to do and spontaneously i was format it as same as show the way to format it.
My prob here is how to recall the format files from format drive?
if you could help me to get the files i very glad.
Thank you
Hey Ila,
If this wasn't a full format, you might be able to recover your files with something like Recuva. For more information, please post your question on MakeUseOf Answers.
Good luck!
just follow the instruction on how to format a usb and you won't go wrong. By the way that's nice to visualize an e-how blog.
USB drives and memory cards auto detect bad sectors and disable the usage of them. There´s no need for a health check on USB drives or memory cards.
Quick format is recommended for flash memory.
HDDs sometimes get bad sectors but usually it´s a rare situation. Happened to me only twice. One was a HDD i bought as being defective (one defective sector, stable situation since five years), the other one was one of the famous 'Death Star series' from IBM.
FAT and FAT32 are indeed supported by Apple's OS X - but very poorly. Transfers between an OS X Mac and a FAT-formatted USB drive can (in my personal experience) take anything up to 10 times as long as they would on a PC. There is as yet no solution to this irritating problem; Apple just don't seem to care.
Where is the 'Why You Would Need To' part?
Good point, Bob! I didn't sum it up because I thought it was obvious. Let me make up for that!
6 Reasons Why You Would Want to Format Your USB Drive:
1. To write files bigger than 4 GB on your USB drive (FAT to NTFS).
2. To create partitions larger than 32 GB (FAT to NTFS).
3. To make your USB drive faster when writing mostly large files to it (increase allocation size and change from NTFS to FAT on a small flash drive).
4. To better use the space on your drive when writing mainly small files to it (reduce allocation size).
5. To guarantee compatibility with non-Windows operating systems (from NTFS to FAT).
6. To clear the drive and check for damaged sectors (remove check for Quick Format).
Does that make sense?
yep. thanks
IMHO anything above 4GB [usable storage] should be formated using NTFS
Windows native support, opensource/freeware drivers for Mac and other *NIX
frustration-free usage when you encounter files over 4GB size
I had a USB drive that would not format using Windows format application. I downloaded and tried the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (you can get it from cnet and other places). It formatted my corrupted drive without any problems.
Thank you for the recommendation. Here is the link in case anyone would like to try it: http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html The
It seems there are more to consider than a quick format which is the wider choice of many users. The file system is very important in the formatting since some computers may not read your USB drive if you had chosen other than the most widely used and accepted.
Indeed Elton, a quick format doesn't check whether the drive is still healthy. And as pointed out in the article, only FAT / FAT32 is compatible with a wide selection of operating systems.
USB drives and memory cards auto detect bad sectors and disable the usage of them. There´s no need for a health check on USB drives or memory cards.
Quick format is recommended for flash memory.
HDDs sometimes get bad sectors but usually it´s a rare situation. Happened to me only twice. One was a HDD i bought as being defective (one defective sector, stable situation since five years), the other one was one of the famous 'Death Star series' from IBM.
Because USB drives >32Gb are still very rare and too expensive, I would say that rule of a thumb for normal user would be to use FAT32 on flash drives.
Those who use >32GB flash drives are professionals and they know what they are going to do with this flash drive and how to format it.
You're right, small flash drives should be formatted with FAT32 because it's faster, compatible with most operating systems, and takes up less space. Also, large flash drives are very expensive.
However, this articles is concerned with USB hard drives in general and these tend to be rather cheap.
IMHO anything above 4GB [usable storage] should be formated using NTFS
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Windows native support, opensource/freeware drivers for Mac and other *NIX
frustration-free usage when you encounter files over 4GB size
True, FAT does not support files larger than 4 GB. Since the opportunity to transfer a 4+ GB file might occur on 4+ GB flash drives, they should be formatted in NTFS. It still depends on the intended use, though. To be safe, throw the drivers you might need on that flash drive, it's large enough.
It's amazing how much has changed since 2011. I can now get a 64GB flash drive for $25. And yet there are still a lot of devices that only accept FAT32
And now 2 years later, I just bought a 64 GB, albeit sales price, for $14.99
Because USB drives >32Gb are still very rare and too expensive, I would say that rule of a thumb for normal user would be to use FAT32 on flash drives.
Those who use >32GB flash drives are professionals and they know what they are going to do with this flash drive and how to format it.
If you have a malfunctioning or corrupted USB drive, formatting it may be the best way to get it back to its original working state. Even if your drive is healthy, you may still want to format it to get rid of the contents there.
This article looks at some ways you can format a USB drive on Windows. If you know some other ways of achieving the same result, tell us about it in the comments section below.
Before you format your USB drive, you need to think about which file system to use. File Systems are simply ways of organising data on a storage device (such as hard drives or SD Cards), and support for various file systems varies depending on your operating system.
Windows 10 offers three file system options when formatting a USB drive: FAT32, NTFS and exFAT. Here is the breakdown of the pros and cons of each filesystem.
| Pros | Cons | Best Used For | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fat 32 | * Compatible with all major operating systems. * Less memory usage. | * Cannot handle single files larger 4GB. *Limited partition size (up to 32GB). | * Removable storage devices such as USB Flash Drives. * Devices that need to be plugged into a variety of operating systems. |
| NTFS | * Can create partitions larger than 32GB. * Can read/write files larger than 4GB. * Supports on-the-fly file encryption. | * Limited cross-platform compatibility. | * Internal hard drives. * Windows system drives. |
| exFAT | * Provides an unlimited file and partition size. | * You may need to install drivers to get exFAT compatibility on Linux. | * External hard drives. * Flash drives if you want to work with files larger than 4GB. |
Now, let’s take a look at some ways you can format your USB drive on Windows 10.
This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your USB Drive, open the Windows File Explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform.
Clicking the “format” option will open a new window where you can configure the available options before formating your drive.
I will be going with the NTFS file system because I need cross-platform compatibility (Windows and Linux), and I may need to transfer files larger than 4GB on occasion.
As for allocation size, it all depends on what you want to do with your drive. If you have a large drive (such as a 500GB hard drive), a large allocation size such as 32 kilobytes will make your device faster, but storage space may fill up quicker. For small drives, such as 4GB or 8GB flash drives, a smaller allocation size will help conserve space.
I’m going with 4kb (4096 bytes) as my allocation size because I work with small files most of the time, and my flash drive is just 16GB.
The volume label is simply the name of your USB Drive. You can name your drive anything you want.
Once you have selected the options, you can click the format button to begin the formatting process. Ticking the “Quick Format” checkbox means that your drive will not be scanned for bad sectors. If you have a malfunctioning drive, you might want to uncheck that box for a more thorough scanning.
A success message will be displayed on the screen once the formatting is completed.
Another method of formatting your USB drive is by using Diskpart, a command prompt utility.
All commands given below should be entered without quotes. A full screenshot of the steps is shown below.
1. Search for the command prompt on the Start Menu or just type cmd. Right-click the command prompt icon and select “Run as Administrator.”
2. Once the command prompt opens up, type in the following command:
3. Next, type the following command to view the active drives on your machine:
It will also show you the disk numbers and storage parameters for all active drives.
4. Use the select command to choose your USB drive. In this case I entered select disk 1 because my USB drive is disk number 1 as seen in the previous step. Make sure you don’t select your internal hard drive or you could destroy your system.
5. Next, type in the following command:
It should display a success message on your screen.
6. Next, type in the following command:
This will create and activate the specified partition.
7. Now it’s time to format your drive. All you need to do is enter the following command:
If you want to use FAT32 or exFAT, simply replace “ntfs” with either of the two formats in the command. And don’t forget to change the name of the drive.
8. Lastly, enter the following command:
Then exit the command prompt.
Your USB Drive should be cleanly formatted and ready to use.
I hope this short tutorial has helped you figure out some different ways to format your USB drives. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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