Insert the USB flash drive into an open USB port on the computer. Click 'Start,' then. Format USB Flash drive to NTFS using Disk Management 1. Find My Computer in the Start menu or by typing it in the search bar. Right-click on it and click on Manage. Plug in the USB drive. Open Windows File Explorer and go to This PC (aka Computer or My Computer). Right-click the drive, and select Format. The formatting options you can customize are File system, Allocation unit size, Volume label, and Format options. Formatting a USB drive is an easy and straightforward process. However, there are some settings one needs to check before formatting it. To enable NTFS on your USB Flash Drive drive (USB Flash Memory) click on My Computer (This PC) and select Manage. Open the Device Manager and find your USB drive under the Disk Drives heading. Right-click the.
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Windows Computer Solutions • Proven solutions
USB Flash Drives are the new file briefcase in this world of technology. It allows you to store as many files you want within a little device. It makes files very compact, easily transportable, and organized. However, just like with a filing system used in paperwork, USB drives also make use of file systems. The most common file systems used are NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32. If you've been using flash drives and other external storage devices for a long time, you may be already familiar with this. Each file system has its pros and cons. Many PC users are opting to format or change their file systems to NTFS. If you're unfamiliar with the file system and have no idea why this needs to be done, keep on reading. In this article, we will provide you with three easy ways you can format your USB drive to NTFS.
Why Do You Need To Format a USB Drive to NTFS?
The default format used by most USB flash drives and other external storage media is FAT32. Some people are fine with keeping this format. But for most users, they always find the need to convert or format their USB drive to NTFS. This is for many reasons. With a USB drive that uses the FAT32 file type, you can only copy or add files less than 4GB. This may be a hassle for some users who want to transport large files like movies, program installers, etc. Meanwhile, NTFS doesn't have this limitation. You can copy or add files of any size and the partition sizes usually have a large capacity.
What is NTFS?
NTFS is a type of file system. It stands for the NT File system and is also called the New Technology File System. It's a way of organizing files within a flash drive. It's a new improvement from previous file types like File Allocation Table (FAT) or Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) previously used by Microsoft Windows. Because it's a relatively new file type, it has increased security from its new features like file permissions and encryptions. NTFS also has a Change Journal where the driver keeps track of the changes made within the drive. This means that if ever your PC unexpectedly shuts down or you experience a system crash, you can recover files that were lost during the event.
Here are three proven methods on how to format USB flash drive to NTFS.
Method 1. Format USB Flash drive to NTFS using Disk Management
1. Find My Computer in the Start menu or by typing it in the search bar. Adobe premiere pro cc 14 0. Right-click on it and click on Manage.
2. In Device Manager, look for your USB drive in the Disk Drives tab.
3. Right-click on your drive and choose Properties.
4. Under the Policies tab, click on Optimize for performance. Select OK.
5. Go to My Computer and look for your drive. Right-click and choose Format in the drop-down menu.
6.In the format options that will pop-up, select NTFS to convert your drive to NTFS.
7. Select Start and wait for the process to finish.
Method 2. Format USB flash drive to NTFS using Command Prompt
Using Command Prompt, make sure to type in the exact commands to avoid unexpected errors.
1. Launch Command Prompt by typing in cmd in the Run tool or typing Command Prompt in the search bar. Select Run as administrator.
2.Type in the command:
convert G: /fs:NTFS
NOTE: In this command, we're formatting drive G. Change this to whatever drive letter you're trying to work with.
Method 3. Formatting your USB drive using Windows tools
You can easily format your USB drive with just the built-in features of your Windows computer. Follow the steps below to perform this:
1. Plug the USB drive into the USB port of your computer or laptop.
2. Go to My Computer and right-click on your USB drive. A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Format…
3. The format window will open. Here you will see the device's capacity, File System, and Allocation unit size. You can also rename the volume label. The Restore device defaults button will revert your drive's settings to default. You can change the file system in NTFS or FAT and also assign the unit size.
4. Select the Start button at the bottom of the window and click OK to begin the format and erase all the data contained in the drive.
Formatting your USB drive may seem intimidating at first. Formatting changes the file type of your drive and along with this, also wipes out all the data saved within. So it's important to back up all the files to your computer or another drive before performing any format. With any of the methods previously mentioned above, you will be able to perform a format of your USB flash drive easily and quickly.
Video Tutorial on How to Recover Lost/Deleted Partition Data?
Partition Recovery
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If you need to format a USB flash drive, HDD, SDD, or some other form of storage to FAT32, you've come to the right place.
In this article we'll go over what a file system is, the FAT32 standard, and several ways to format a storage device to FAT32 on Windows 10. Adobe pdf player.
What's a file system?
A file system is a standardized way of organizing data on a computer storage device like a flash drive or HDD.
A file system divides a storage device into virtual compartments, almost like a wall of post office boxes, and keeps track of all the information that gets stored in each box.
Some of the most common file system formats for portable storage devices are FAT32, NTFS, and ExFAT.
FAT32 compared to other formats
Of those three common formats, FAT32 is the oldest and most widely supported. Every major operating system will allow you to read and write from a USB flash drive that's formatted to FAT32.
Meanwhile, macOS can only read NTFS drives, and you would need to install third-party software to write back to the drive.
However, though FAT32 is well supported, its maximum drive and file size is severely limited when compared to newer formats like NTFS and ExFAT:
| Max drive size | Max file size | Windows | macOS | Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT32 | 32 GB (Windows), up to 16TB (Other OSs) | 4 GB | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
| NTFS | 8 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read | Read/Write |
| ExFAT | 128 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
* 1 petabyte is about 1 thousand terabytes
** 1 exabyte is about 1 million terabytes
Note that the maximum drive and file size of NTFS and ExFAT is so large that there's basically no limit. (But it would be nice to have a 128 PB USB drive, wouldn't it?)
On the other hand, FAT32's max file size of 4 GB is almost nothing now that phones can record 4K videos. Also, it's a little more difficult to format a drive larger than 32 GB to FAT32 on Windows 10.
These days, the only reason why you'd choose to format a drive to FAT32 is for compatibility. For example, if you need to boot up an old computer, maybe with a different operating system, and backup some of its files. But you'd need to be sure that none of those files are greater than 4 GB.
If you're sure you want to go with FAT32, here's how to format a storage drive on Windows 10.
Important note: Before you format a drive, make sure that you backup all of your important files. In fact, make two backups, and keep one on a remote service like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Formatting a drive will delete all of the data that's currently on it.
How to use Windows File Explorer to format a USB drive to FAT32
A quick note about this method: it only works on USB flash drives that are less that 32 GB. If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, check out one of the later methods.
With that out of the way, plug your USB drive into your computer and open Windows File Explorer.
Next, right-click on the drive on the left hand side of the File Explorer window and click 'Format':
In the window that pops up, ensure that 'FAT32' is selected. Also, feel free to rename the USB drive whatever you'd like:
You can leave the rest of the options alone. Just click start to format your drive.
Once it's done, your USB drive should be formatted to use the FAT32 file system.
To double check this, open File Explorer, right click on your USB drive, and click 'Properties'.
A window will pop up and you should see that the file system is now FAT32:
Reformat Flash Drive Windows 10
How to use Rufus to format a USB drive to FAT32
If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, you'll need to use a third-party program like Rufus to format it.
There are lots of other programs that can format USB drives, but Rufus is really small and portable. This means you can stick Rufus right on a USB drive, plug it into any Windows computer, and format other drives on the go.
After you download Rufus, double click on the .exe file to start the application.
Make sure your USB drive is selected. Then, click the 'Boot selection' dropdown and select 'Non bootable':
Next, click the 'File system' dropdown and select 'FAT32'.
Also, feel free to change the name of your USB drive under 'Volume label':
Then, click the 'Start' button to format your drive. After a few seconds it'll be formatted to FAT32.
How to use PowerShell to format a USB drive to FAT32
While this method works with drives larger than 32 GB, it's really slow – even formatting a 32 GB drive can take up to an hour depending on your computer.
If you need to format a USB flash drive, HDD, SDD, or some other form of storage to FAT32, you've come to the right place.
In this article we'll go over what a file system is, the FAT32 standard, and several ways to format a storage device to FAT32 on Windows 10. Adobe pdf player.
What's a file system?
A file system is a standardized way of organizing data on a computer storage device like a flash drive or HDD.
A file system divides a storage device into virtual compartments, almost like a wall of post office boxes, and keeps track of all the information that gets stored in each box.
Some of the most common file system formats for portable storage devices are FAT32, NTFS, and ExFAT.
FAT32 compared to other formats
Of those three common formats, FAT32 is the oldest and most widely supported. Every major operating system will allow you to read and write from a USB flash drive that's formatted to FAT32.
Meanwhile, macOS can only read NTFS drives, and you would need to install third-party software to write back to the drive.
However, though FAT32 is well supported, its maximum drive and file size is severely limited when compared to newer formats like NTFS and ExFAT:
| Max drive size | Max file size | Windows | macOS | Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAT32 | 32 GB (Windows), up to 16TB (Other OSs) | 4 GB | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
| NTFS | 8 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read | Read/Write |
| ExFAT | 128 PB* | 16 EB** | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
* 1 petabyte is about 1 thousand terabytes
** 1 exabyte is about 1 million terabytes
Note that the maximum drive and file size of NTFS and ExFAT is so large that there's basically no limit. (But it would be nice to have a 128 PB USB drive, wouldn't it?)
On the other hand, FAT32's max file size of 4 GB is almost nothing now that phones can record 4K videos. Also, it's a little more difficult to format a drive larger than 32 GB to FAT32 on Windows 10.
These days, the only reason why you'd choose to format a drive to FAT32 is for compatibility. For example, if you need to boot up an old computer, maybe with a different operating system, and backup some of its files. But you'd need to be sure that none of those files are greater than 4 GB.
If you're sure you want to go with FAT32, here's how to format a storage drive on Windows 10.
Important note: Before you format a drive, make sure that you backup all of your important files. In fact, make two backups, and keep one on a remote service like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Formatting a drive will delete all of the data that's currently on it.
How to use Windows File Explorer to format a USB drive to FAT32
A quick note about this method: it only works on USB flash drives that are less that 32 GB. If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, check out one of the later methods.
With that out of the way, plug your USB drive into your computer and open Windows File Explorer.
Next, right-click on the drive on the left hand side of the File Explorer window and click 'Format':
In the window that pops up, ensure that 'FAT32' is selected. Also, feel free to rename the USB drive whatever you'd like:
You can leave the rest of the options alone. Just click start to format your drive.
Once it's done, your USB drive should be formatted to use the FAT32 file system.
To double check this, open File Explorer, right click on your USB drive, and click 'Properties'.
A window will pop up and you should see that the file system is now FAT32:
Reformat Flash Drive Windows 10
How to use Rufus to format a USB drive to FAT32
If your USB drive is larger than 32 GB, you'll need to use a third-party program like Rufus to format it.
There are lots of other programs that can format USB drives, but Rufus is really small and portable. This means you can stick Rufus right on a USB drive, plug it into any Windows computer, and format other drives on the go.
After you download Rufus, double click on the .exe file to start the application.
Make sure your USB drive is selected. Then, click the 'Boot selection' dropdown and select 'Non bootable':
Next, click the 'File system' dropdown and select 'FAT32'.
Also, feel free to change the name of your USB drive under 'Volume label':
Then, click the 'Start' button to format your drive. After a few seconds it'll be formatted to FAT32.
How to use PowerShell to format a USB drive to FAT32
While this method works with drives larger than 32 GB, it's really slow – even formatting a 32 GB drive can take up to an hour depending on your computer.
But, if you aren't able to use the previous two methods for some reason, this will work in a pinch.
First, click on the Windows Search Bar and type in 'powershell'. Then, click 'Run as administrator' to launch PowerShell with elevated privileges:
In the PowerShell terminal, enter the following command:
format /FS:FAT32 DRIVE_LETTER:
Use the File Explorer to double check your drive letter. My drive letter was D, so I entered format /FS:FAT32 D:.
Press Enter, make sure your USB drive is plugged in, and press the Enter key again to start the process:
Then go run some errands or something – it will take awhile.
Once the format command is finished, your drive should be formatted to FAT32.
In closing
Now you should be able to format a USB drive of any size to FAT32 on Windows 10. And with just a little modification, any of these methods can be used to format your drive to another file system like NTFS or ExFAT.
Formatting A Flash Drive Windows 8
Now get out there and format all your USB drives. (But only after you backup everything important!)
Was this helpful? Is there a better method that you know of? Tweet at me and let me know how you format things on Windows 10.
