Formatting a USB drive seems easy because you can click the delete button to delete all the files the USB drive can store. However, sometimes you may need to format your USB drive to remove malware lurking on it, repair damaged partitions, or choose a compatible file system that allows your USB drive to work on it. Windows and macOS.
There are many ways to format a USB drive on your computer. We’ve rounded up the top ways to format a USB drive on your Windows 11 PC.
1. Format the USB drive using File Explorer
File Explorer provides a quick and direct way to format a USB drive on your Windows 11 PC. However, File Explorer needs to detect your USB drive first to format it. Follow the steps below to format your USB drive using File Explorer:
Step 1: Press Windows + E key combination to open File Explorer and click This PC in the left column.
Step 2: From the right pane, right-click on the USB drive that you want to format and select Format from the context menu that opens.
Step 3: Click the File system drop-down menu and choose one of the file system formats:
- Select NTFS to use only the USB drive on Windows.
- Select exFAT to use the drive on both Windows and macOS.
- Use FAT32 to use it between different platforms, but the maximum file size for transfer will be only 4GB.
Meanwhile, if you are unsure about the file system, click the ‘Restore device defaults’ button before moving on to the next step.
.
Step 5: Click in the text box below the Volume label and enter a name for the USB drive. Then click start.
Step 6: Click OK when the confirmation dialog box appears.
2. Format the USB drive using the Settings app
Unlike previous versions, the new and improved Settings app included with Windows 11 makes it easy to perform storage-related operations. Whether it’s creating partitions or formatting drives, the new and redesigned Settings app on Windows 11 can do it all.
Here’s how you can format a USB drive using the Settings app on your Windows 11 PC:
Step 1: Press the Windows + I key combination to open the Settings application. Click System in the left column and click Storage in the right pane.
Step 2: From the Storage screen, click ‘Advanced storage settings.’
Step 3: From the ‘Advanced storage settings’ drop-down menu, click ‘Disks & drives’.
Step 4: Next, click the drop-down arrow next to the USB drive that you want to format.
Step 5: Click on the letter of the USB drive, in our case USB (F:). Then click on the Properties button that appears just below it.
Step 6: Click the Format button as shown in the image below.
Step 7: When the Format Drive dialog box appears, enter a name for your drive and use the File System drop-down menu to choose a name. Then click Format.
3. Format the USB drive with Disk Management Utility
The Disk Management utility is useful for managing partitions, changing drive letters, and performing other memory-related tasks, such as formatting any connected internal or external drives. with your Windows 11 PC.
Here’s how you can format a USB drive using a disk management utility on your Windows 11 PC:
Step 1: Press the Windows + X keyboard shortcut to open the Power User menu and click Disk Management.
Step 2: Find the portable USB drive that you want to format and right-click on it. In the context menu that appears, click Format.
Check the USB drive’s capacity and drive letter before formatting to make sure you’ve selected the correct drive.
Step 3: In the Format dialog box, click the Volume label to enter a name for the USB drive, select File system and click OK. Alternatively, you can check the ‘Perform quick format’ box to let Windows complete the process quickly.
Step 4: Click OK when the confirmation dialog box appears.
Your computer will then format the selected USB drive.
4. Format USB drive using Command Prompt
Command Prompt is undoubtedly one of the most flexible command line interfaces (CLIs) built into Windows. You can use it to process files in bulk, repair corrupt system files, or perform advanced administrative tasks like fixing activation key related problems, booting your PC into You can also use it to format any internal or external drive connected to your Windows 11 PC.
Here’s how you can use the Command Prompt to format a USB drive on your Windows 11 PC:
Step 1: Press the Windows + S key combination to launch Windows Search and type Command prompt. From the results for Command Prompt, click ‘Run as administrator.’
Step 2: When the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, click Yes.
Step 3: Type the following command and press Enter to launch the Diskpart utility:
Disc part
Step 4: Type the following command and press Enter to see the list of available drives:
disc list
Step 5: Type the following command and press Enter to select the USB drive you want to format:
select 3 . disc
Replace ‘3’ with your USB drive number. Your USB drive may have a different disk number.
Step 6: Type the following command and press Enter to delete all storage partitions.
cleaning
Step 7: Type the following command and press Enter to create the primary partition.
create primary partition
Step 8: Type the following command and press Enter to do a quick format.
If you want to change the file system for your USB drive, replace ‘NTFS’ with exFAT or FAT32. Meanwhile, if you want to change the drive label, replace ‘USB’ with another name (spaces are not supported).
format fs=label NTFS=Fast USB
Step 9: Type the following command and press Enter to assign a random drive letter to the formatted USB drive.
entrust
5. Format a USB drive with Windows PowerShell
Besides Command Prompt, you can also use Windows PowerShell to perform most administrative tasks on your PC. Here’s how you can use Windows PowerShell to format any USB drive connected to your Windows 11 PC:
Step 1: Press Windows + S key combination to open Windows Search and type WindowsPowerShell. Then from the results for Command Prompt, click ‘Run as administrator.’
Step 2: When the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, click Yes.
Step 3: Type the following command and press Enter to see the list of connected drives.
Receive disc
Step 4: Type the following command and press Enter to select your USB drive and delete all its data and configuration files.
Don’t forget to replace ‘3’ with your USB drive number. Your USB drive may have a different disk number.
Get Disc 2 | Erase Disk -RemoveData
Step 5: Type the following character and press Enter to confirm your decision to delete all data and configuration files on your USB drive.
Y
Step 6: Type the following command and press Enter to create the drive partition.
New partition -DiskNumber 2 -UseMaximumSize
Step 7: Type the following command and press Enter to start a quick format, select the file system, and assign the drive label.
If you want to change the file system for your USB drive, replace ‘NTFS’ with exFAT or FAT32. Meanwhile, if you want to change the drive label, replace ‘USB’ with another name (spaces are not supported).
Get Partition -DiskNumber 2 | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel USB
Step 8: Type the following command and press Enter to assign the drive letter.
Get Partition -DiskNumber 2 | Set partition -NewDriveLetter E
Securely erase any USB drive on Windows 11
That is all. You can safely format a USB drive connected to a Windows 11 PC using any of the methods above. The best thing about these methods is that you don’t need to waste your precious time downloading third-party apps or programs to do so.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
