how to format usb drive in command prompt

During the format process, only the best suited file systems will be displayed in Windows.įirst, let me say it IS possible for Windows to format a USB flash drive as UDF (Universal Disk Format).

Windows provides NTFS as an option for USB flash drives, but as mentioned before, NTFS is not the best file system for a USB drive. The proper file systems for a flash drive is: FAT, FAT32 or exFAT.

Once Windows has finished the formatting process, close the Command Prompt.When trying to format a flash drive in Windows (7 or 10) you will see the file system options best suited for the device. Wait a few minutes for the formatting process to finish. Here is the complete syntax for the command format: format When you get the message Insert new disc for drive E, press Enter again to continue. Step 2: In the Command Prompt window that opens, enter the following command to format your USB drive (where E is the letter of your USB stick) by copying and pasting and validating with the Enter key: format E: /fs:ntfs Or press WIN + R, type CMD, and press Enter.

Click on the Start menu, type CMD in the search box, then right-click on it and select Run as administrator. Step 1: There are two ways to open the command line. How to Format USB Using CMD on Windows 10 Windows 10 includes by default several tools to format any storage device. To format a USB flash drive or any other removable storage device, there is no need to install third-party software. Finally, you can format your USB drive before you get rid of it, in order not to leave any personal information. You can format a removable storage device to ensure that it does not contain any malicious code or when the USB drive is not accessible because the data is corrupted.Īlso, formatting a removable storage device is required if it uses a file system that is not compatible with your system. Formatting a USB drive can be useful in many cases. In this tutorial, we are going to see how to format USB using CMD on Windows 10.

How to format usb drive in command prompt