Reformat Usb Drive
Format USB flash drive to a new file system. By formatting, you can format the USB flash drive’s file system to NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT for different purpose. For example, if you want to use the USB on various storage media, you can format the file system to FAT32 as FAT32 offers the best compatibility. Reallocate the USB Drive Volume from Disk Management Console. Even after you wipe your USB drive clean, your computer will not be able to view it. Therefore, we will need to open the Disk Management Console, which is easily accessible from the search menu. You can also type “diskmgmt.msc.”. Formatting flash drive. To format a USB flash drive using PowerShell commands, use these steps: Open Start. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator. In its main interface, right click the USB drive to be formatted and select “Format Partition”. In this window, you can select a desirable file system (ex: FAT32) for the USB drive, and click “OK”. The easiest way to describe formatting is that it preps your USB drive for proper use by your computer. It creates a filing system that makes your data organized while allowing you to store the most files possible. This virtual high tech filing cabinet organizes your files in a way that makes your flash drive perform at its best.
Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
USB drives are something of daily use for a modern-day person. From listening to music to transferring important files from pc to pc, we use flash drives for a variety of reasons. These flash drives are plugged into several different devices and hence are at risk of corruption or malfunctioning and might require to be formatted at times. The USB flash drive can be formatted in a variety of ways like depending upon the operating system and other features.
Sometimes, certain devices may only read specific USB file systems. So learning how to format your USB to a new file system is something that will come in handy.
Part 1: What is FAT32 Format?
FAT32 is an improved version of the FAT system which was introduced in 1996 by Microsoft with its Window95 OSR2 system. The purpose of its development was to be a better version of the FAT16 in terms of speed, performance, robustness, flexibility, and to support larger volumes.
Part 2: What Should You Do before Formatting a USB Drive?
A USB drive may contain songs, videos, documents, important files, etc. depending on the person who uses it. So most people don’t prefer formatting unless they want to get rid of those files. Formatting can also be done on faulty USB drives in which case, the user should move all the data in it before deletion.
If a device is not being detected or faulty, formatting is the last step. The user should try all the options to make it visible whether it is a Windows or Mac. Even then if it doesn’t work trying to repair and recover the files is the next option.
Part 3: How to Format USB to FAT32 on Windows 10?
In some cases, the USB flash drives need to be formatted to FAT32 as it is one of the most preferred and compatible file systems for both mac and windows. But, while trying to format a flash drive in the usual manner, problems may arise or the FAT32 option might not be available. In such cases, we can resort to alternative as well as simple methods to achieve the goal.
Let us have a look at how a USB flash drive can be formatted to FAT32 via file explorer as well as via disk management.
Method 1: Format USB to FAT32 via File Explorer
A common and easy way to format a USB drive to FAT32 is to make use of the File Explorer.
Step 1: Connect the USB drive or the desired external hard drive to the Windows 10 computer
Step 2: Launch the File Explorer and from it find the USB drive. Right-click on the drive and select Format
Step 3: Select the FAT32 type as the target file system and select the box beside Quick Format. Tap on Start to start the formatting process.
When you are notified about the completion of the process tap OK. Your USB is now is FAT32.
Method 2: Format USB to FAT32 via Disk Management
Disk management is a built-in utility of Windows which is made to help users with the disk partition related problems or works. It is also one of the most preferred choices when it comes to formatting USB to FAT32.
Step 1: Right-click on My Computer and select the Manage option
Step 2: Under Storage tap the Disk Management option
Step 3: from the volume list select the thumb drive
Step 4: Right-click on it and then tap Format
Step 5: Select FAT32 format from the file system: list box
Step 6: tap OK
Part 4: Format USB to FAT32 on Mac - macOS 10.15 Catalina
Formatting a USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac is easy as windows. To do so you can either use the disk utility or the terminal command line.
Method 1: Use Disk Utility
Reformat Usb Drive Wrong Size
Follow the steps to format FAT32 with Disk Utility:
Step 1: Plug the USB drive that needs to be formatted to the Mac computer.
Step 2: Navigate to Applications and then to Utilities. Tap it twice to open.
Step 3: Choose the drive that needs to be formatted and tap on Erase.
Step 4: You can rename the USB drive if needed. Choose the MS-DOS(FAT) to format.
Step 5: Select the Master Boot Record for the scheme and then tap Erase.
Step 6: When the process is complete the USB drive is converted to the FAT32 file system.
Method 2: Use Terminal Command Line
The command line also works in the same way as the disk utility to format the USB drive.
Reformat Usb Drive Macbook
Follow the steps to format FAT32 with the Terminal command line:
Step 1: Plug the USB flash drive that needs to be formatted to a Mac computer.
Step 2: To run Spotlight press cmd + space and type: terminal and press Enter
Step 3: Type diskutil list and then find the drive that is acting as your USB
Step 4: Type sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2
- Sudo - grants you the user right.
- Diskutil – calls the disk utility program.
- erase disk – to command to format the drive
- FAT32 - selects the file system
- MBRFormat – pass information to disk utility commanding to format with a Master Boot Record
- /dev/disk2 - it is the USB drive location
The process may take some time to complete. Wait patiently. On completion type diskutil list in command box if you want to check whether the formatting had been successful
Reformat Usb Drive To Exfat
Part 5: How to Recover Lost Data after Formatting a USB Drive to FAT32?
The formatting USB drive is an easy task. But before formatting, some might be worried about the files or data in the USB drive. There may be irrelevant as well as very important files that can’t be replaced in a USB drive. But what to do if the drive is a corrupt one or malfunctioning in some ways?
You need not worry as there are varieties of applications available in the market for recovering such files. An application like Recoverit helps you to recover almost all data, ranging from documents to big size videos from a USB drive even after formatting to FAT32.
Recoverit Data Recovery is one of the best and preferred applications in the market and the steps for data recovery are pretty simple and the same whether it be a Windows or a Mac. the recovery of data from an external drive can be done in these three simple steps
- Select a location
- Scan the location
- Preview and recover data
Recoverit Data Recovery - The Best File Recovery Software
Recoverit allows the user to recover any lost data regardless of the model and type of the external device. There is a high success rate in the recovery of files using Recoverit whether it be memory cards, external hard disks, cameras, USB flash drives, music players, etc.
Step 1: Select the external device/drive
To recover deleted or lost files from an external device, it needs to be selected as the target location for data searching and scanning
Step 2: Scan the removable media
A complete scanning will be initiated once you select Start. The scanning usually takes some time depending on the size of the USB drive In between the process, the desired files can be located and filtered.
Step 3: Preview of files and recovery
After the whole scanning process, Recoverit allows the user to preview the located files. All the files including photos, videos, documents, videos, audios, etc. can be previewed.
Then, select the files that you need to recover and tap the Recover bar.
All the files will be recovered and saved for your use.
Conclusion
The loss of files from a USB drive or the drive itself malfunctioning is a common issue in today’s world. The loss of important files and data can have a huge impact on our domestic life as well as work. But, applications like Recoverit helps us to tackle these issues and move forward.
USB Topic
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
If you’ve been a Windows user for even a small amount of time, you’d know how to format USB Drive on Windows. It’s fairly straightforward and all you have to do is right-click on it and select Format. You get to select a new file system for the drive before you click the Start button and that’s it. Sometimes though, this method can return an error. In most cases, the error message you’re shown is Windows was unable to complete the format. Usually, when a GUI method fails, there’s a command line method to do the same thing which probably won’t fail. So if you’re facing any such errors while trying to format USB drive on Windows 10 you can try the command prompt.
Most Windows users will probably shy away from the command line because it seems like a daunting task. You don’t know what to type, and even when you do know you can’t make sense of it. Using the command line seems like a job only programmers and computer wizards would do. However it may seem, using the command line is pretty simple and in some cases simpler than using the GUI. Just follow the instructions given below and by the end of it, you’ll realize it too.
Note: Formatting a USB Drive will erase all data on it. If you have any important data saved to the drive make sure you copy or move it to a safe place. Furthermore, a formatting error can occur due to a number of reasons. In some cases, using the command line can help but it may not necessarily help in every situation.
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Format USB Drive on Windows 10 using Command prompt
- Run the Command prompt as administrator. To do this, search cmd in the Windows 10 search box, right-click on the Command prompt search result and select Run as administrator. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Start button or press Win+X on the keyboard. Select Command Prompt (Admin) from the quick menu. Click Yes on the User Account Control screen.
- In the command prompt, run the Diskpart tool by entering this command:
- After this, retrieve a list of all connected drives using the command given below.
List disk
When you press Enter, the DiskPart tool will list all the drives connected to your PC. Identify the USB drive that you want to format and make sure it is the correct drive. Your internal drives are also listed here and you wouldn’t want to format those. You can see the sizes of each of the listed drives to help make your decision. If you’re still not sure, disconnect the USB drive and run the list disk command again. Comparing the list of drives before and after disconnecting the drive you can easily identify it. - When you’ve identified the USB drive, note its disk number and then run this command.
Here, X is the number of the drive you want to format. For instance,
- That command only selects the drive, as you probably guessed. Now to erase it all you have to do is type this command,
and hit Enter.
- This deletes the entire partition though so you will need to create a new one and you can do this with the following command.
The above command will create a primary partition but you can also swap it for a logical partition if you prefer although that is not recommended.
- Next, you should assign a file system to the drive.
The above command will format the USB drive in the FAT32 format which is ideal for USB drives. You can use fs=NTFS instead to format the drive as NTFS which will then only work on a Windows PC.
You’ve successfully formatted the drive now so type exit and hit enter to close Diskpart and then close the Command prompt window.
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