• Windows 10 Format Usb Fat32
• Cannot Format Usb Drive Windows 10

Cannot format USB or external hard drive to FAT32 in Windows 10

Mostly, people would like to format a USB flash drive or external hard drive to NTFS. But sometimes, you may want to format a USB flash drive or external hard drive to FAT32 in Windows 10 for some reasons, like making the USB or external hard drive faster when writing mostly large files to it or ensuring the compatibility with non-Windows operating systems.

Use File Explorer to copy and paste the entire contents of the Windows product DVD or ISO to the USB flash drive. Optional: add an unattend file to automate the installation process. For more information, see Automate Windows Setup. Step 3 - Install Windows to the new PC. Connect the USB flash drive to a new PC. Next, you’ll need to format the USB drive – just type in format fs=fat32 and hit enter; You’ll now need to assign your USB drive a letter, to do that, just type in assign; Lastly, copy all the Windows 10 files and paste it inside the USB drive. (You can copy the files by extracting an ISO or copy it. How to Format a Flash Drive. Right click on the USB drive icon and select format from the tabulation. Create a Bootable Windows 7 or Vista USB Drive.

But the problem is that the max partition size of FAT32 is 32GB, which means you can only format devices smaller than 32GB into this file system. From the chart below, you'll have a better understanding of why you can't format USB or external hard drive (more than 32GB) to FAT32:

Windows 10 Disk Management tool also can't do this on a USB drive or hard drive which is bigger than 32GB. Fortunately, this page will show you how to do it by using CMD command line and professional Windows 10 FAT 32 format tool.

Format to FAT32 using CMD command line (Free)

A simple and free way to format your flash drive or external hard drive to FAT32 in Windows 10 is using CMD command line. It's a built-in tool in Windows, enabling you to format, create, delete, extend, and shrink partitions without rebooting the system.

Please be careful while using CMD for FAT32 formatting with the following steps:

Step 1: Type command prompt in Windows 10 search bar or right-click on 'Windows icon' > select 'Search', and type cmd.

Step 2: Right-click on 'Command Prompt' and select 'Run as Administrator'.

Step 3: Type the command format fs=fat32 quick at the prompt and hit 'Enter'.

Windows 10 will begin formatting the USB flash drive or external hard drive into FAT32.

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Step 4: Type exit when the process has completed.

Use EaseUS Windows 10 FAT32 formatting tool (Easier & Safer)

If you prefer a safer and easier way to format your USB flash drive or external hard drive to FAT32, you can try a professional third-party Windows 10 FAT32 formatting tool. We recommend you try EaseUS partition manager with its Format partition feature. Now, download and install this tool on your computer, then follow the steps to get things done.

Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.

Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.

Windows 10 Format Usb Fat32

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.

Smaller cluster size makes less wasting of disk space. The smaller the cluster size is, the bigger file allocation table (FAT) will be. The bigger the FAT is, the slower the operating system works with the disk.

Final Word

This page tells how to format a USB or external hard drive into FAT32, which is especially helpful in formatting devices bigger than 32GB into FAT32 without data loss. If you want to convert devices into NTFS without formatting, please refer to How to Convert FAT to NTFS for help.

Cannot Format Usb Drive Windows 10

You need to format a hard drive if you plan on using it in Windows.

To format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive.

As complicated as that might sound, it's not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of Windows. All operating systems offer this capability and Windows makes it easy.

If the hard drive you want to format has never been used or was just wiped clean, it must first be partitioned. See How to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows for instructions. Once partitioned, return to this page for help formatting the drive.

Time Required: The time it takes to format a hard drive in Windows depends almost entirely on the drive's size, but your computer's overall speed plays a part, too.

How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows

Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP:

1. Open Disk Management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of Windows.

   Opening Disk Management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of Windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box or the Start menu.

   Another way to open Disk Management is through Control Panel.

2. After Disk Management opens, which might take several seconds, look for the drive you want to format from the list at the top. There's a lot of information in Disk Management, so if you can't see everything, maximize the window.

   Look for the amount of storage on the drive as well as the drive name. For example, if it says Music for the drive name and it has 2 GB of hard drive space, then you've likely selected a small flash drive full of music.

   Feel free to open the drive to make sure it's what you want to format, if that would make you confident that you're going to format the right device.

   If you don't see the drive listed on the top or an Initialize Disk windows appears, it probably means that the hard drive is new and has not yet been partitioned. Partitioning is something that must be done before a hard drive is formatted. See How to Partition a Hard Drive for instructions and then come back to this step to continue the formatting process.

3. Now that you've found the drive you want to format, right-click it and choose Format to open the disk-formatting wizard.

   Now is as good a time as any to remind you that you really, really, really need to make sure that this is the right drive. You certainly don't want to format the wrong hard drive.

   • Existing Drive: If you're formatting a drive that you've been using and that has data on it, double-check in Explorer that the drive letter you're choosing here in Disk Management is the same as the one you see in Explorer that has the information on it that you want to erase. Once formatted, the existing data on the disk are probably unrecoverable for most people.
   • New Drive: If you're formatting a new drive, a great way to tell that it's the right one is to look at the File System column in the top part of Disk Management. Your existing drives will show file systems of NTFS or FAT32 but a new, unformatted drive will show RAW instead.

   You cannot format your C drive, or whatever drive Windows is installed on, from within Windows. In fact, the Format option isn't even enabled for the drive with Windows on it. See How to Format C for instructions on formatting the C drive.

4. The first of several formatting details which we'll cover over the next several steps is the volume label, which is essentially a name given to the hard drive.

   In the Volume label textbox, enter whatever name you'd like to give to the drive.

   If the drive had a previous name and that makes sense for you, by all means keep it.

   Drive letters are assigned during the Windows partitioning process but can easily be changed after the format is complete. See How to Change Drive Letters after the format process is done if you'd like to do that.

5. Next up is the file system choice. In the File system textbox, choose NTFS.

   NTFS is the most recent file system available and is almost always the best choice. Only choose FAT32 (FAT — which is actually FAT16 — isn't available unless the drive is 2 GB or smaller) if you are specifically told to do so by a program's instructions that you're planning on using on the drive. This is not common.

6. In the Allocation unit size textbox, choose Default. The best allocation size based on the size of the hard drive will be chosen.

   It's not at all common to set a custom allocation unit size when formatting a hard drive in Windows.

7. Next is the Perform a quick format checkbox. Windows will check this box by default, suggesting that you do a 'quick format' but we recommend that you uncheck this box so that a 'standard format' is performed.

   In a standard format, each individual 'part' of the hard drive, called a sector, is checked for errors and overwritten with a zero — a sometimes painfully slow process. This procedure ensures that the hard drive is physically working as expected, that each sector is a reliable place to store data, and that existing data is unrecoverable.

   In a quick format, this bad sector search and basic data sanitization is skipped entirely and Windows assumes that the hard drive is free of errors. A quick format is very fast.

   You, of course, can do whatever you like — either method will get the drive formatted. However, especially for older and brand new drives, we'd prefer to take our time and do the error checking right now instead of letting our important data do the testing for us later on. The data sanitization aspect of a full format is nice, too, if you're planning on selling or disposing of this drive.

8. The final format option is the Enable file and folder compression setting that is unchecked by default, which we recommend sticking with.

   The file and folder compression feature allows you to choose files or folders to be compressed and decompressed on the fly, potentially offering considerable savings on hard drive space. The downside here is that performance can be equally affected, making your day-to-day Windows use much slower than it would be without compression enabled.

   File and folder compression has little use in today's world of very large and very inexpensive hard drives. In all but the rarest occasions, a modern computer with a large hard drive is better off protecting all the processing power it can and skipping on the hard drive space savings.

9. Review the settings you've made in the last several steps and then click OK.

   • Volume label: [label of your choosing]
   • File system: NTFS
   • Allocation unit size: Default
   • Perform a quick format: unchecked
   • Enable file and folder compression: unchecked

   Look back at whatever previous steps you need to if you're wondering why these are the best options.

10. Windows is usually pretty good about warning you before you might do something damaging, and a hard drive format is no exception.

    Click OK to the warning message about formatting the drive.

    Just as the warning says, all the information on this drive will be erased if you click OK. You can't cancel the format process halfway through and expect to have half of your data back. As soon as this starts, there's no going back. There's no reason for this to be scary but we do want you to understand the finality of a format.

11. You can check the progress by watching the Formatting: xx% indicator under the Status column in the top part of Disk Management or in the graphical representation of your hard drive in the bottom section.

    If you chose a quick format, your hard drive should only take several seconds to format. If you chose the standard format, which we suggested, the time it takes the drive to format will depend almost completely on the size of the drive. A small drive will take a small amount of time to format and a very large drive will take a very long time to format.

    Your hard drive's speed, as well as your overall computer's speed, play some part but the size is the biggest variable.

    In the next step, we'll look at whether the format completed as planned.

12. Disk Management in Windows won't flash a big 'Your Format is Complete!' message, so after the format percentage indicator reaches 100%, wait a few seconds and then check again under Status and make sure it's listed as Healthy like your other drives.

    You may notice that now that the format is complete, the volume label has changed to what you set it as (New Drive in our case) and the % Free is listed at 100%. There's a little overhead involved so don't worry if your drive isn't completely empty.

13. That's it! Your hard drive has been formatted and it's ready for use in Windows. You can use the new drive however you want — back up files, store music, and videos, etc.

14. If you'd like to change the drive letter assigned to this drive, now is the best time to do that. See How to Change a Drive Letter for help.

Formatting Deletes Data — but Doesn't Always Erase It

When you format a drive in Windows, data may or may not truly be erased. Depending on your version of Windows, and the type of format, it's possible the data is still there, hidden from Windows and other operating systems but still accessible in certain situations.

See How to Wipe a Hard Drive for instructions on truly removing all the information on a hard drive and Wipe vs Shred vs Delete vs Erase: What's the Difference? for some helpful clarification.

If the hard drive you're reformatting won't ever need to be used again, you can skip the format and the wipe, and physically or magnetically destroy it instead. See How to Completely Erase a Hard Drive for more on these other methods.

More on Formatting Hard Drives in Windows

If you want to format your hard drive so you can install Windows again from scratch, your hard drive will be automatically formatted as part of that process. See How to Clean Install Windows for more on that.

Not happy with the drive letter that Windows assigned during the partitioning process? You're welcome to change it at any time! See How to Change Drive Letters in Windows to learn how.

You can also format a hard drive via Command Prompt using the format command. See Format Command: Examples, Switches, & More for details on how to do that.