Best USB Format Tools: Format a USB Flash Drive to FAT32/exFAT/NTFS

"Friends! As my USB drive is full of previously saved files, these files are no longer useful. I want to format my USB drive to store some of my current photos. Does anyone know how to do this? Thank you very much!"

The convenient storage and portability of USB drives have brought great convenience to our daily lives, but the capacity of USB drives is also limited. When there are too many or less important files stored on USB drives, we can choose to format them. However, how to format USB drives? What are some useful USB formatting tools? The formatting of USB drives may still contain some small knowledge that you may not know. In this article, we will explain the things about USB formatting to you. Keep reading!

Sometimes USB drives may carry viruses or require significant memory release during use, they must be formatted. How can USB drives be formatted? The following methods can help you format your USB drive easily!

Method 1. Use Disk Management to format USB drives

The built-in Disk Management in Windows is a very practical tool that can help users complete many basic disk management tasks. We can use it to format USB drives.

Step 1. Press Win+R and enter diskmgmt.msc, then press the confirm key to open the disk management tool.

Step 2. Right click on the USB drive you want to format and select "Format".

Step 3. Select "FAT32" (or any other desired file system) in the file system column, and then click "OK" to perform the format USB drive task.

Method 2. Use Command Prompt to format a USB flash drive to FAT32

The command prompt is a good tool for computer professionals, as it can accomplish various computer tasks with a few short lines of commands without the need for unnecessary operations. However, it should also be noted that if the USB drive space is greater than 32GB, formatting cannot be successful. How can we format a USB drive through diskpart in Command Prompt? The specific operation process is as follows.

Step 1. Enter cmd in the search box and run the command prompt as an administrator.

Step 2. Enter the following commands in sequence and press Enter once after each command line

diskpart

list volume

select volume n (n refers to the drive you want to format)

format fs=fat32 quick (If you need to format the storage drive to another file system, such as exFAT, please replace this command with format fs=exFAT quick)

This method is a bit complex, and it is not recommended for users who are not familiar with computers to choose.

Method 3: Use third-party disk formatter to format a USB drive as FAT32/Ext4 in Windows

DiskGenius Free Edition is a powerful computer tool that also supports the function of formatting USB drives, hard drives, SSDs, SD card, etc. Currently, DiskGenius supports formatting partitions to NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, exFAT, EXT2, EXT3, and EXT4 file systems in Windows. Even then the USB drive is larger than 32 GB, it can also format the USB drive as FAT32. The operation is very simple and convenient, suitable for all groups of people.

Step 1. Select the partition you want to format, right-click it and choose "Format Current Partition" from the context menu.

Step 2. Select the file system, cluster size, volume label, and then click the "Format" button.

Step 3. When DiskGenius requests confirmation of the operation, click "Yes" and the partition will be quickly formatted.

FAQs on formatting USB drives

1. Why do USB drives need to be formatted?

Reason 1: Repair damaged or unusable USB drives. When using a USB drive, due to unpredictable factors such as virus infection, file system errors, read/write errors, etc., the data inside the USB drive may become unreadable, damaged, or unusable. At this point, performing a USB drive formatting operation can restore the USB drive to its factory state and solve these problems.

Reason 2: Quickly free up disk space. USB formatting can clear all data inside it, ensuring confidentiality and security.

2. What should I pay attention to when formatting a USB drive?

Point 1: Back up important USB drive data. Before formatting the USB drive, be sure to back up important data in the drive. Because formatting will clear all data in the USB drive.

Point 2: Format speed of USB flash drive. The formatting speed of a USB drive depends on factors such as its capacity, formatting method, and computer performance, and usually takes several minutes to several hours. Please be patient and wait.

Point 3: Do not interrupt USB drive formatting. During the process of formatting the USB drive, do not interrupt the operation, otherwise it may cause problems such as USB drive damage and data loss.

3. How to recover formatted data on USB?

If you need to restore the formatted USB due to accidental deletion, formatting, improper operations, or other reasons, you can still use DiskGenius which has very powerful data recovery features and can deeply scan your USB drive to recover lost data as much as possible.

The Bottom Line

This article introduces three effective methods for formatting USB drives using free USB formatting tools, which can help us easily format USB drives in Windows operating systems. If you don't want to download other software, the built-in disk management tools and command prompts in the system will be a good choice, but they have corresponding flaws. If you want to format a USB drive with more than 32GB of capacity, these two formatting tools won't work. Therefore, DiskGenius with wider applicability is a good choice.

More guides

• Free USB RAW Format Tool: Format RAW USB Drive to FAT32/NTFS/EXT4
• How to Reformat a Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7?
• How to Format a Large SD Card to FAT32 in Windows 10/11?