How to Format a Flashdisk on Windows & Mac

Do you already know how to format a flash drive correctly on Windows or Mac? If not, then you must listen and follow this tutorial article carefully.

There are many choices of storage media that we can use. For example, an external hard drive, micro SD, or flash. However, when viewed from the functionality and portability, the flash still dominates between the two others. Flashdisk is one of the practical storage media with a small size and is portable.

In this article, we will discuss how to format a flash drive. There are several ways to format the flash that you might be able to use. The first is through Windows Explorer (the most common way), the second is through CMD, the third is through disk management and the fourth is through powershell. Although this tutorial is specifically for Flash Drive Storage devices, this tutorial can also be used for various other types of storage media.

Important Attention Before Format Flash

When the capacity of the flash is full, rather than having to delete the contents of the data one by one, it is more efficient to do a complete erasure or what is better known as format

By formatting , you will delete all files in the Flashdisk without exception. So, for those of you who don't know how to format the correct Flashdisk, first consider some general information such as:

  1. File System NTFS dan FAT32
  2. Allocation Unit
  3. Format Options
  4. Volume Label

1. File System NTFS & FAT32

You already know four different file systems: NTFS , FAT, FAT32 , and exFAT. So what's the difference between a file system and which one should you choose when formatting a flash?

The advantages of NTFS over FAT and FAT 32:

  • Read/write files larger than 4 GB and up to maximum partition size
  • Create partitions larger than 32 GB
  • Compress files and save disk space
  • Better space management = less fragmentation
  • Allows more clusters on larger drives = less wasted space
  • Add user permissions to individual files and folders (Windows Professional)
  • An-the-fly file encryption using EFS (Encrypting File System; Windows Professional)

Advantages of FAT 32 Compared to NTFS:

  • Compatible with virtually all operating systems
  • Takes up less space on USB drive
  • Less disk writing operations = faster and less memory usage

exFAT Dibandingkan FAT & FAT32 :

  • Read/write files larger than 4 GB
  • Create drive partitions larger than 32 GB
  • Better space management = less fragmentation

2. Allocation Unit Size

Allocation Unit Size is a small portion of storage given to the system to accommodate the writting process on the Flashdisk. The larger the partition space you allocate, the better the system performance will be in reading files on the Flashdisk.

So you can set these options depending on your needs. If you want to save a large file size, then maximize the allocation size for better performance. If you want to save files in medium or small sizes, then the small allocation size will not be a problem.

But usually, the user will leave this option set in its default state.

3. Format Options

By default, the Quick Format option will be checked. This feature allows Flashdisk to be erased quickly without deep scanning. Conversely, if you remove the check mark on this option, the system will do a deep scanning of the flash. But unfortunately, this takes longer than the Quick Format option

4. Volume Label

Volume label is the name that will be used by Flashdisk, so you can enter any name you like. But there are some limitations based on the type of file system selected, including:

  • NTFS , maximum 32 letters, will be displayed in upper or lower case as typed.
  • FAT , maximum 11 letters, cannot use special characters (*?.,;: / \ | + = <> []), All displayed letters will be capitalized.

How to Format Flashdisk via File Explorer

  1. Plug in the USB drive or Flashdisk to be formatted.
  2. Open Windows  File Explorer
  3. Then log in to This PC  (or  Computer  or My Computer )
    Format Flashdisk File Explorer Menu
  4. Find the Flashdisk drive (for example G :), then right click>  Format
  5. You can set it for, File system ,  Allocation unit size ,  Volume label , and  Format options .
    setting format flashdisk new volume
  6. Then just click Start , wait, and press OK
  7. That's how to format a flash via file explorer in Windows 10. It's very easy!

How to Format a Flashdisk Via Disk Management

  1. Open Start.
  2. Search Disk Management and click on the top result to open the program.
  3. Right-click the USB flash drive and select the Format option.
    How to Format Flashdisk via Disk Management
  4. In the " Volume label " column , type a label to name the flashdisk in File Explorer.
  5. Use the " File System " menu and select the NTFS option. (You can also select the “FAT32” or “exFAT” option.)
  6. In the " Allocation unit size " drop-down menu , use the Default option .
  7. Check the option Perform a quick format .
    Format Settings USB Flashdisk via Disk Management
  8. Click the OK button.
  9. That's how to format a flash via Disk Management in Windows 10. It's very easy!

How To Format Flashdisk via Command Prompt

The flash disk format process via CMD can solve the problems that occur when using the previous method (via File Explorer). This method is also effective for overcoming write protected flash drives, many viruses, or flash drives that display the wrong / reduced amount of capacity than they should.

1. Flashdisk format in CMD the usual way

There are 2 ways to format a flash via CMD in Windows 10. Namely using the usual method (manual) and with the help of Diskpart. You can format the flash with the quick format method or full (full) using the Command Prompt, follow these steps.

  1. Open the Start Menu .
  2. Look for  Command Prompt, then right click select Run as administrator.
    Quick Format Flashdisk via CMD
  3. Type the command below to run quick format and press Enter  2 times. 
    Format VOLUME: /v:FLASHDRIVE-LABEL /fs:FILE-SYSTEM /q

    In the command, make sure you replace  VOLUME  with the correct storage drive letter. FLASHDRIVE-LABEL  with the name you want the drive to appear in File Explorer. Then  FILE-SYSTEM  with one of the available file systems, including  FAT32 ,  exFAT , or  NTFS  (recommended).

    Example:  this is how to quickly format the E drive: 

    Format E: / v: workFlash / fs: NTFS / q
  4. Type the following command to perform the full format (not quick format) of the USB flash drive and press Enter (twice). 
    Format VOLUME: /v:FLASHDRIVE-LABEL /fs:FILE-SYSTEM

    Example  of Drive E's full format command: 

    Format E: / v: workFlash / fs: NTFS

2. Format Flashdisk in CMD via Disk Part

To clean and format a USB thumb drive with Command Prompt, use these steps.

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Search for  Command Prompt.  Left click select the option  Run as administrator.
  3. Then, Type diskpart command  to open   Diskpart tool  and press  Enter .
  4. Type the command  list disk  to see a list of available drives and press  Enter.
  5. Type the command  select disk DISK-NUMBER  to select the flash drive and press  Enter .
    Note : In the command, make sure to replace  DISK-NUMBER  for the correct number that represents the drive you are formatting.
    Example :  select disk 1
  6. Type the command  Clean  to delete all partitions and press  Enter .
  7. Type the command  create partition primary  to create a primary partition and press  Enter.
  8. Next, Type the command format fs = FILE-SYSTEM label = DRIVE-NAME  quick  to do a quick format and press  Enter .
    In the command, make sure to change  NTFS  for the file system of your choice,  workFlash  for the name you want to give the device, and if you don't specify the quick option  then the full format will take place.
    How to Format Diskpart CMD Flashdisk
  9. Examples of how to quickly format a flash using the NTFS file system: 
    format fs=NTFS label=workFlash quick
  10. That is how to format the flash via CMD Diskpart. Very easy!

Type the command assign to assign a drive letter and press Enter.

Note : you can add letter = e to the command to set E as the drive letter. Otherwise, the system will assign the drive letter automatically.

Type the exit command to end diskpart and press Enter.

How to Format Flashdisk via PowerShell

Similar to the Command Prompt, you can use PowerShell to quickly format a flash disk to erase its contents. Or you can also use command-line tools to remove content and fix the problem.

1. Usual Flashdisk Format

Follow these steps for How to Format a Flashdisk using the PowerShell command.

  1. Open the Start menu  .
  2. Find  PowerShell  and right -click select  Run as administrator.
  3. Type the following command to perform a quick format on the flash drive and press  Enter . 
    Format-Volume -DriveLetter DRIVE-LETTER -FileSystem FILE-SYSTEM

    Under Command, make sure to replace  DRIVE-LETTER  with the correct letter on the drive you want to format, and  FILE-SYSTEM  for FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS (recommended).
    Example : run fast format drive E: 

    Format-Volume -DriveLetter E -FileSystem NTFS
  4. Type the following command to perform the full format on the USB flash drive and press  Enter. 
    Format-Volume -DriveLetter DRIVE-LETTER -FileSystem FILE-SYSTEM -Full -Force

    Example of running full format E drive: 

    Format-Volume -DriveLetter E -FileSystem NTFS -Full -Force

2. How to Format Flashdisk via Powershell Get-Disk

To clean and format the flash with the PowerShell command, use the following steps.

  1. Open the Start menu  .
  2. Search for  PowerShell  and right click select the option  Run as administrator.
  3. Type the following command to view the flash drive you wish to repair and press Enter. 
    Get-Disk
  4. Type the following command to erase volume and press Enter. 
    Get-Disk 1 | Clear-Disk -RemoveData
  5. In the command, change the DISK NUMBER to the correct number and represent the flash drive you are formatting.
    Example of selecting and cleaning disk number 1: 

    Get-Disk 1 | Clear-Disk -RemoveData
  6. Type  Y  and press  Enter .
  7. Type the following command to create a new partition and press  Enter . 
    New-Partition -DiskNumber DISK-NUMBER -UseMaximumSize

    In the command, change the  DISK NUMBER  to the correct number and represent the flash drive you are formatting.
    Example of creating a new partition using all available space on drive number 1: 

    New-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -UseMaximumSize
  8. Type the following command to perform a quick format and assign a drive label, and press  Enter : 
    Get-Partition -DiskNumber DISK-NUMBER | Format-Volume -FileSystem FILE-SYSTEM -NewFileSystemLabel DRIVE-NAME

    Change the DISK-NUMBER  command  to correctly  FILE-SYSTEM  for   NTFS ,  FAT32,  or  exFAT,  and  DRIVE-NAME  with the name of the device you want in File Explorer.
    Example of selecting and formatting drive number 1 using the NTFS file system: 

    Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel workFlash
  9. Type the following command to assign a new letter to the drive and press  Enter . 
    Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter E

How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac

Mac users can also easily format the usb storage. Namely using a program called Disk Utility. This program works just like the Disk Management in Windows, you can use it to erase (format), restore, partition and unmount it.

Then how do you format the flash on Mac OS? You can follow the steps below:

  1. Connect the flash on the MacBook
  2. Open the Applications folder  and click " Utilities "
  3. Click " Disk Utility ". The Disk Utility window will appear on the screen
    How to Format a Mac Flashdisk
  4. Click the name of your flashdisk on the left in Disk Utility
  5. Click the " Erase " tab that appears at the top of the Disk Utility window
  6. Then, click the menu next to " Format "
  7. Choose the format you prefer.
  8. Type the name of the Drive in the "Name".
  9. Click the " Erase " option . Wait for the formatting process to finish.
    How to Format a MacOS Flashdisk
  10. Please click " Done ".
  11. The process of formatting the flash on a Mac has been successfully carried out.

In the format section, there are various options that you can choose from. Here's the explanation:

  • Mac OS Extended (Journaled) , this is a file system format for Mac, namely HFS Plus Journaled. If you select this option, then the flash drive can only view its data when connected to a Mac. The flash drive will also not be readable when connected to a computer with the Windows operating system.
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) , partitions to be case-sensitive, meaning that "CERTAIN '(uppercase) folders / files will be considered different from" certain "(lowercase) folders.
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) , generally the same as the options described earlier. However, there are additional passwords and encryption on the case-sensitive journaled partitions.
  • MS-DOS (FAT) , this is a universal file system that can be accessed on a Mac or PC with a Windows operating system, supports various versions of legacy operating systems, but has a fundamental weakness, namely that it cannot deal with files larger than 4GB in size.
  • ExFAT , newer than MS-DOS (FAT), supports files over 8GB, and can be used on volumes larger than 32GB. It's just that because it's newer, ExFAT doesn't support older Mac OS X under version 10.6.5 and also older versions of Windows under XP SP2.

How to Format Write Protected Flashdisk

How to Overcome Write Protected Flashdisk with CMD

  1. Connect the flash with the computer.
  2. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
  3. Type the command  diskpart .
  4. Then the command  list disk , and  select disk (number) , replace me with the appropriate number for the flash.
  5. Type  attributes disk clear readonly , after finishing type clean command  .
    Tutorial Format USB Drive Write Protected
  6. Type list volume and select volume which says unusable
  7. Then type the  format fs = fat32  or the  format fs = ntfs  according to the desired disk format.
  8. After that type  exit .

How to Overcome Write Protected Flashdisk with Registry Editor

If using the Command Prompt is not successful, the user can overcome the write protected flash with the Registry Editor (Regedit). To use Regedit to solve the write protected flash disk problem, here are the steps:

  1. Open Regedit by pressing Windows key  + R  and typing  Regedit  followed by the Enter key 
  2. Enter the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section    then  SYSTEM  then  CurrentControlSet  look for  Control  and enter  StorageDevicePolicies
  3. Look for the WriteProtect option  , right click on the option and select  Modify
    Format Flashdisk Write Protected
  4. Then change the value data to  0 , and click  OK
  5. If so, unplug the flash, restart the computer, and plug the flash back in to format it

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Fix Msvcp110.dll Missing Error in Windows

Image
Fixing the missing error msvcp10.dll is an easy thing. This problem often attacks Windows and is arguably enough to make us confused. Usually, there are several different msvcp110.dll error notifications that can occur, including: "Msvcp110.dll Not Found" "This application failed to start because msvcp110.dll was not found." "Cannot find [PATH] \ msvcp110.dll" "The file msvcp110.dll is missing" “Cannot start [APPLICATION]. A required component is missing: msvcp110.dll. " Msvcp110.dll drror usually appears when we are installing a program or game. It could also be when Windows is just booting or is shutting down, even silly, sometimes msvcp110.dll missing can also appear when we are not using the computer. With this error, we are actually warned by Windows that there is a loss of important system files that are useful for many things. For that, be...
Read more

How to Fix Windows Modules Installer Worker High CPU 100%

Image
Some of the features in Windows 10 sometimes make the computer slow. One of them is the Windows Modules Installer Worker feature. On this occasion, we will discuss how to disable and overcome Windows Modules Installer Worker which causes high cpu overload. Windows Module Installer Worker itself is a feature that installs updates. But during the installation process, the system jerks will slow down and make the CPU to 100 percent. This problem is common, and will continue to occur as Windows Update runs the process. To fix Windows Modules Installer Worker which consumes CPU resources up to 100% is very easy. Namely by turning off the module and setting it to manual. But if you want to stop the Windows Update process permanently, please read the tutorial on how to turn off Windows 10 updates here . How to Disable Windows Modules Installer Worker High CPU 100% can be caused by Windows Modules Installer Worker. When this process o...
Read more

How to Fix VCRUNTIME140.DLL Error on Windows

Image
If you are a fan of gaming on a PC, then you may have encountered this problem. VCRuntime140.DLL Error in windows is caused due to a lack of a dll file on your system. The DLL file stores various functions to run games or applications. Usually, VCRuntime140.dll error occurs because Windows doesn't have a library function to execute the program. So as for the program in question, it will be bound by the version and year of manufacture. For example, for the sims 4 which was created in 2014, it will be tied to the Microsoft Visual C ++ 2013 Redistributable system. In fact, it could be that the game is tied to versions 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012. In essence, to solve the vcruntime140.dll error, you have to install various redistributables to be able to play the game and run the software you want How To Fix VCRuntime140 Error With CCleaner First, we will check how many you lack the distributable version. Download and install CCl...
Read more