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There are many ways to format a USB drive in Windows. But in this guide, I share two methods – via File Explorer and Disk Management.
Option 1: Format a USB Drive from File Explorer
- Right-click the Windows Start menu and select File Explorer.
- Then, on the left pane, click “This PC.”
- After that, right-click the USB flash drive and select Format.
- The default File system is FAT32. However, if you wish to format the USB with the NFTS or exFAT file system, click the File system drop-down.
- After making your selection, click Start to begin formatting the drive.
Formatting your USB drive deletes all data. Proceed only if you’re happy to lose all data in your USB drive.
Option 2: Format a USB Drive from Disk Management
- Right-click the Start menu and select Disk Management.
When you open Disk Management, it takes a while to load the disks.
- If the drive hasn’t been formatted before, it will display as “Unallocated”. Right-click the Unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.
- On the New Simple Volume Wizard, accept the defaults and click Next, then, on the final page of the wizard, click Finish.
Disk Management formats a USB drive with the NTFS file system by default. If you wish to format your drive with the FAT32 file system, select this option on the Format Partition page of the wizard.
When the drive is formatted, it will be displayed as a “Healthy Primary Partition.”
Conclusion
I have explained how to format a USB drive from File Explorer and Disk Management. However, there are other methods you can use to complete this take.
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If you love commands, you can format your drive with the DiskPart command or PowerShell’s Format-Volume command.
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