During formatting, a disk or flash drive is marked in a special way into special sectors and tracks (tracks). Without this process, writing and reading information from data carriers would be impossible. Sometimes formatting is used to quickly clear a partition from a large amount of data or hidden viruses and malicious scripts. This article describes in detail how you can format your USB flash drive and what to do if you cannot complete the formatting in Windows 7.
Briefly about the process
During this procedure, special marks are created on the media, dividing it into separate parts – tracks and sectors.
There are many different file systems, but the most popular are FAT32 and NTFS. Windows can work with both, but it is recommended to use NTFS.
Therefore, it will be useful for many users to learn how to format a USB flash drive with Fat32 into the NTFS system.
Since during the process all the stored data disappears without a trace, you can use formatting to delete a large amount of information from any partition. It can also be useful to do this if the device has been infected with viruses and you are not sure if your antivirus was able to cope with them.
Do not forget that before you format the USB flash drive, you need to copy all the files you need to a safe place.
Context menu
This is the easiest way – you just need to open Windows Explorer (“My Computer”), and right-click on the section you are interested in. In the drop-down context menu that opens, select the “Format” item.
In a new window, you will be prompted to select a file system (NTFS or FAT32). If you need NTFS, you can specify the size of the cluster. It should be set based on how you will use the media. If a lot of small files will be stored on it, install a smaller cluster. For “heavy” objects, a larger cluster is better suited. In general, this only slightly affects the speed of data processing, so you can safely leave everything by default.
Then you can check the box next to the “Quick Format” option. It takes much less time, but it cannot fix problems with “broken” unreadable sectors. After it, you can still try to recover the stored data. If you have the opportunity, and you are firmly convinced that there is nothing of value on the flash drive, it is better to follow the full process.
Problem solving
Sometimes users may see the error message “Unable to complete formatting device.” In this case, it is worth trying other, more “advanced” utilities. To find out how to format a USB flash drive in case of problems, read this manual:
Open the Start menu using the Windows button or by clicking the appropriate icon on the left side of the Quick Access Toolbar.
- Go to the “Control Panel” Windows.
- Go to the “System and Security” section.
- In the “Administration” column, select “Create and format hard disk partitions”.
- Here users need to select their device, right-click on it and select “Format …” in the drop-down list.
- Choose a file system, cluster size and start the process.
- If you see the message again stating that formatting cannot be completed, the next method is worth trying.
Command line
- Bring up the dialog box using the Windows + R keys.
- Enter “cmd” in the text box and press Enter.
- In the opened Windows console you need to enter the command “format / FS: file_system letter_flash:”. For example, “format / FS: NTFS E:”.
- In case you need quick formatting, add “/ q” at the end of the line.
- Press Enter and wait for the end of the operation.
D-soft Flash Doctor
Using this utility, you can restore a USB flash drive if Windows cannot complete formatting. Management of the program is very simple – just install it, open it, select the desired media and click on the “Restore” button.