Create and format a hard disk partition

To create a partition or volume (the two terms are often used interchangeably) on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended partition on the hard disk.

If there is no unallocated disk space, you can create some by shrinking an existing partition, deleting a partition, or by using a third-party partitioning program.

Open Computer Management by selecting the Start button. The select Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

In the left pane, under Storage, select Disk Management.

Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then select New Simple Volume.

In the New Simple Volume Wizard, select Next.

Enter the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then select Next.

Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the partition, and then select Next.

In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following:

If you don’t want to format the volume right now, select Do not format this volume, and then select Next.

To format the volume with the default settings, select Next.

Review your choices, and then select Finish.

Note: When you create new partitions on a basic disk, the first three will be formatted as primary partitions. Beginning with the fourth, each one will be configured as a logical drive within an extended partition.

How to Format Your USB Drives in Windows 10

If you have a malfunctioning or corrupted USB drive, formatting it may be the best way to get it back to its original working state. Even if your drive is healthy, you may still want to format it as a quick and easy way to erase its contents.

This article looks at some ways you can format a USB drive on Windows. If you know some other ways of achieving the same result, let us know about them in the comments section below.

Which File System Should You Use?

Before you format your USB drive, you need to think about which file system to use. File Systems are simply ways of organizing data on a storage device (such as hard drives or SD Cards). Support for various file systems varies depending on your operating system.

Windows 10 offers three file system options when formatting a USB drive: FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. Here is the breakdown of the pros and cons of each filesystem.

Pros	Cons	Best Used For
Fat 32	* Compatible with all major operating systems * Less memory usage	* Cannot handle single files larger than 4GB *Limited partition size (up to 32GB)	* Removable storage devices such as USB Flash Drives * Devices that need to be plugged into a variety of operating systems
NTFS	* Can create partitions larger than 32GB * Can read/write files larger than 4GB * Supports on-the-fly file encryption	* Limited cross-platform compatibility	* Internal hard drives * Windows system drives
exFAT	* Provides an unlimited file and partition size	* You may need to install drivers to get exFAT compatibility on Linux	* External hard drives * Flash drives if you want to work with files larger than 4GB

Next, let’s take a look at some ways you can format your USB drive on Windows 10.

Method 1: Format USB Drive from File Explorer

The most popular way to format a storage device, and arguably one of the easiest, is directly through Windows File Explorer. The process is the same for both internal and external storage devices.

To format a USB drive this way:

1. Right-click on it in a File Explorer window and choose “Format … ” from the menu that pops up.

2. Choose the filesystem you’ve decided to use on the device.

3. Choose the allocation unit size you’d like to use. Higher values are better if you’re planning to store large files, giving a small boost to performance and reducing fragmentation. However, they also waste some space. Keep in mind that most devices have an optimal allocation unit size, so we suggest choosing the default value. It’s also worth noting that most storage media today are tuned for the 4096 value.

4. Enter a name for your USB drive in the field under the Volume label.

5. Leave “Quick Format” enabled if you didn’t keep sensitive data that you’d want to erase and if you’re sure your USB drive works properly. A Quick Format marks the device as empty but doesn’t actually erase its contents. It’s the equivalent of flipping a switch from “not empty” to “empty.” A full format takes more time, and in the case of large multi-terabyte external hard disk drives, it can even take days. However, it goes over the full storage area, bit by bit, ensuring there are no bad sectors and everything works correctly.

6. Click on Start to format your USB drive.

Method 2: Format USB Drive from the Device Manager

If, for some reason, Windows didn’t assign a letter to your USB drive, or its filesystem was corrupted, it may not show up in File Explorer. Thankfully, it’s similarly easy to format it from the Disk Management app.

1. Press Win + X to access Windows 10’s administrative quick menu. Choose Disk Management. Alternatively, you can locate and run it from the Start menu by pressing the Win Key and then typing its name.

2. Disk Management will present you with a list of all storage devices and their partitions. If your drive works properly, you will see one or more partitions listed inside it. You can format them individually. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to remove them and use all of the space on your drive as one contiguous block, click on each of them and choose “Remove Volume” until none remain.

3. If your USB drive’s space is presented as unallocated, right-click on it and create a new volume. Windows 10 offers multiple options, but in 99 percent of the cases, you want to go with a Simple Volume.

4. Follow the New Simple Volume Wizard steps to create a partition and then format it.

5. If you want to create more than one partition in your USB drive, you can input a smaller volume size for the one you are currently making. This will leave empty space on your drive, allowing you to repeat the process to create more partitions later.

6. You will have the option to assign a drive letter to the partition you are creating directly from this wizard. You can also map it to an empty NTFS folder instead or skip assigning a drive letter altogether.

7. As when formatting from File Explorer, you’ll be able to choose a file system, the allocation unit size, enter a volume label, and decide if you’ll go for a quick format.

8. Before the actual format, the New Simple Volume Wizard will present a summary of your choices. Click on Finish to accept them and format your USB drive.

9. However, if your drive already contains one or more partitions that you want to format without applying any changes to them, the process is even more straightforward. While in the Disk Management app, right-click on the partition you want to format and choose that option (Format …) from the menu that pops up.

10. Enter a name for the partition in the volume label field. As with the previous approaches, choose a file system, allocation unit size, and whether you want to perform a quick format. Click on OK to format your USB drive.

Method 3: Format USB Drive from the Command Prompt

If you prefer the command line, you can format a USB drive with the diskpart command in Powershell.

This tool is basically the command-line equivalent of the Disk Management application used in the previous section.

1. Press Win + X and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin). There, type diskpart and press Enter.

2. Type the following command to view the active drives on your machine:

3. Use the select command to choose your USB drive by stating its disk number from the previous command. Replace “disk 1” in the following with the one that matches your own USB drive.

4. Remove your USB drive’s contents to start fresh with:

5. Create and activate a partition with the following two commands:

6. To perform a quick format on the partition you just created using the NTFS file system and the label “MTE,” use:

7. Lastly, assign a letter to your drive with:

Format with Modern PowerShell Tools

The modern command-line warrior will probably prefer PowerShell’s specialized commands for the job at hand.

1. Fire up PowerShell with administrative privileges. There, type the following to see a list of your connected storage devices:

2. In our case, Get-Disk reported our USB Flash Drive as the Number 1 drive. Replace that number with the one that matches your own drive in the command that follows to fully erase its contents:

3. Answer positively (by typing “Y” and pressing enter) when asked if you’re sure you want to perform this action.

4. Proceed by creating a new partition, setting it as active, and assigning it a drive letter with:

5. Finally, format your partition with the filesystem and label of your choice using the command Format-Volume. Formatting the one mapped to letter F with the FAT32 filesystem and the label FlashDrive would look like:

The Retro Way

As with many other things in life, when formatting a USB drive, sometimes the old way is also the easiest and the best.

Note that this only works in existing partitions by erasing their contents, which, in the process, allows you to choose a different filesystem and set a volume label. Like with all other methods, you can also go for a full or quick format.

To erase everything in partition F formatted with the FAT32 filesystem, assign it the label FlashDrive and do a quick format. The command would be:

The command will ask you to insert a new disk and press Enter. Ignore the “inserting disk” part, press Enter, and enjoy your newly formatted drive.

As described, there are many ways to format USB drives under Windows 10. If instea, you have an unformattable and unusable USB drive, check out the various ways to fix it.

Related:

OK’s real life started at around 10, when he got his first computer — a Commodore 128. Since then, he’s been melting keycaps by typing 24/7, trying to spread The Word Of Tech to anyone interested enough to listen. Or, rather, read.

How to format a USB flash drive on Windows 10

On Windows 10, the ability to format a USB flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. For example, you might want to reformat a new or used removable storage device to make sure it doesn’t contain any malicious code. Or if a thumb drive is inaccessible because of data corruption. Maybe you received a flash drive using a file system that isn’t compatible with your system configuration. Or you’re planning to give the drive away and want to make sure personal information doesn’t go along with it.

Whatever the reason, Windows 10 ships with several tools to format virtually any kind of storage, including USB flash drives, using File Explorer, Disk Management, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through the different ways you can format a USB flash drive to quickly erase its contents or fix problems when the device isn’t recognized.

Warning: Using any of the instructions outlined below will erase the contents on the drive you select. If you have any important files, you should back them up before proceeding.

How to format a USB flash drive using File Explorer

To format a USB flash drive using File Explorer, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Click on This PC from the left pane.

Under the «Devices and drivers» section, right-click the flash drive and select the Format option.

Use the «File system» drop-down menu and select the NTFS option.

Quick tip: If you’re planning to use the removable drive on Windows 10 as well as on macOS systems, you may want to select the exFAT option for compatibility. However, if you’re also thinking about using the device on a Linux machine, FAT32 is the best option, even though you’ll be limited to 4GB file sizes.

Under the «Format options» section, select the Quick format option.

Note: The «Quick format» option only deletes the file system table and the root folder, but the data may still be recoverable on the drive. If you don’t check the option, a full format will take place, and it’ll perform a scan for bad sectors and writes zeros in all sectors to delete the data. As a result, the process can take a long time depending on the size of the storage.

Click the Start button.

Click the Yes button.

Once you complete these steps, you can start storing documents, pictures, videos, and other files on the removable drive.

How to format a USB flash drive using Disk Management

Using Disk Management, there are at least two ways to format a removable drive. You can format the drive to rebuild the file system table and erase its content. Or you can delete the partition containing the file system and data, which can come in handy to fix problems with storage.

Formatting flash drive

To use Disk Management to format a USB drive, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Disk Management and click the top result to open the experience.

Right-click the removable drive and select the Format option.

Check the Perform a quick format option.

(Optional) Check the Enable file and folder compression option.

Click the OK button.

After completing the steps, the flash drive will be erased and ready to use in File Explorer.

Cleaning and formatting flash drive

If you’re dealing with errors and other problems, you can use these steps to clean the USB flash drive and start from scratch with a new partition and file system using Disk Management:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Disk Management and click the top result to open the experience.

Right-click the removable drive and select the Delete volume option.

Right-click the «Unallocated» space and choose the New Simple Volume option.

Use the drop-down menu to select an available letter.

Quick tip: If you’re assigning a letter manually, it’s best to select a letter in reverse order (Z, Y, X, and so on).

Use the File system drop-down menu and select the NTFS option.

Note: Using this method, you can only use «NTFS» or «FAT32.» If you need to format the drive using «exFAT,» you’ll need to use Command Prompt or PowerShell

Check the Perform a quick format option. (If you clear the option, a full format will take place, which can take a long time.)

(Optional) Check the Enable file and folder compression option.

Click the Next button.

Click the Finish button.

Once you complete these steps, a new partition will be created, and a new file system will be configured, fixing common problems with the flash drive, including data corruption.

If you’re unable to perform a format, it’s likely that the removable drive is physically damaged. If this is the case, you can always purchase another USB flash drive, such as the SanDisk Extreme Go (CZ800), which comes in 64GB and 128GB variants with enough space to save large files and small backups.

Reliable storage

SanDisk Extreme Go

If you’re in the market for a reliable thumb drive with enough storage for large projects and fast transfer speeds, the SanDisk Extreme Go (CZ800) is an excellent option. The USB drive offers up to 128GB of storage with transfers speeds up to 200MB/s, it’s backed by the strong brand, and it even includes some nifty features like password protection, recovery, and encryption. It’s also affordable, at around $31 for 128GB.

How to format a USB flash drive using Command Prompt

Alternatively, you can also use Command Prompt to format a USB flash drive to delete the file system table and data. Or you can also use the tool to clean the drive and start fresh with a new partition and file system table.

Formatting flash drive

To perform a quick or full format of a USB flash drive using Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to perform a quick format of the USB flash drive and press Enter (twice):

format VOLUME: /v:FLASHDRIVE-LABEL /fs:FILE-SYSTEM /q

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

This example is a quick format of the E drive:

format E: /v:workFlash /fs:NTFS /q

(Optional) Type the following command to perform a full format of the USB flash drive and press Enter (twice):

format VOLUME: /v:FLASHDRIVE-LABEL /fs:FILE-SYSTEM

This example performs a full format of the E drive:

format E: /v:»workFlash» /fs:NTFS

After completing the steps, the thumb drive will be formatted with the option that you specified.

Cleaning and formatting flash drive

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

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to launch the diskpart tool and press Enter:

Type the following command to view a list of the available drives and press Enter:

Type the following command to select the flash drive you want to delete and press Enter:

select disk DISK-NUMBER

In the command, make sure to replace «DISK-NUMBER» for the correct number that represents the drive you’re trying to format.

This example selects the flash drive listed as disk number 1:

Type the following command to delete all the partitions and press Enter:

Type the following command to create a primary partition and press Enter:

create partition primary

Type the following command to perform a quick format and press Enter:

format fs=FILE-SYSTEM label=DRIVE-NAME quick

In the command, make sure to replace «NTFS» for your preferred file system, «workFlash» for the name you want to give the device, and if you don’t specify the «quick» option, then a full format will be performed.

This example quickly formats the removable storage using the NTFS file system:

format fs=NTFS label=workFlash quick

Type the following command to assign a drive letter and press Enter:

Quick note: You can append «letter=e» in the command to assign (in this case) «E» as the drive letter. Otherwise, the system will assign a letter automatically.

Type the following command to terminate diskpart and press Enter:

Once you complete these steps, diskpart will remove any information on the USB flash drive. It’ll create a new partition and configure a compatible file system to store files from your Windows 10, macOS, or Linux machine (depending on your settings).

How to format a USB flash drive using PowerShell

Similar to Command Prompt, you can use PowerShell to quickly format a removable flash drive to erase its content. Or you can also use the command-line tool to clean and format the device, deleting its contents and fixing issues.

Formatting flash drive

To format a USB flash drive using PowerShell commands, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to perform a quick format on the flash drive and press Enter:

Format-Volume -DriveLetter DRIVE-LETTER -FileSystem FILE-SYSTEM

In the command, make sure to replace «DRIVE-LETTER» with the correct letter that reflects the drive you want to format, and «FILE-SYSTEM» for FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS (recommended).

This example performs a quick format of the E: drive:

Format-Volume -DriveLetter E -FileSystem NTFS

(Optional) Type the following command to perform a full format on the USB flash drive and press Enter:

Format-Volume -DriveLetter DRIVE-LETTER -FileSystem FILE-SYSTEM -Full -Force

This example performs a full format of the E: drive:

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

After completing the steps, PowerShell will format the removable storage with the settings you specified.

Cleaning and formatting flash drive

To clean and format a removable drive with PowerShell commands, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to view the flash drive you want to fix and press Enter:

Type the following command to delete the volume and press Enter:

Get-Disk DISK-NUMBER | Clear-Disk -RemoveData

In the command, change «DISK-NUMBER» for the correct number that represents the flash drive you’re formatting.

This example selects and cleans the disk number 1:

Get-Disk 1 | Clear-Disk -RemoveData

Type Y to confirm the action and press Enter.

Type the following command to create a new partition and press Enter:

New-Partition -DiskNumber DISK-NUMBER -UseMaximumSize

In the command, change «DISK-NUMBER» to the correct number that represents the flash drive you’re formatting.

This example creates a new partition using the entire space available on drive number 1:

New-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -UseMaximumSize

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

In the command, change «DISK-NUMBER» to the correct number of your storage, «FILE-SYSTEM» for «NTFS,» «FAT32,» or «exFAT,» and «DRIVE-NAME» with the name you want the device to appear in File Explorer.

This example selects and formats drive number 1 using the NTFS file system:

Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel workFlash

Type the following command to assign a new letter to the drive and press Enter:

Get-Partition -DiskNumber DISK-NUMBER | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter DRIVE-LETTER

In the command, replace «DISK-NUMBER» for the correct number of your removable storage, and «DRIVE-LETTER» with the letter you want the device to appear in File Explorer.

This example sets E as the drive letter for disk number 1:

Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter E

Once you complete these steps, similar to Command Prompt, PowerShell will remove any information in the USB flash drive to fix problems, including data corruption, write protection, and unrecognized drives. Then it’ll create a new partition and configure a compatible file system to store files from your Windows 10, macOS, or Linux machine (depending on your configuration).

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Halo: MCC’s live service elements make it better, not worse

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is more popular than ever, but some fans don’t agree with the live service approach 343 Industries has taken with it. Here’s why those elements are, at the end of the day, great for the game and for Halo overall.

Microsoft’s Surface Duo is not ‘failing up’

Microsoft announced this week that it was expanding Surface Duo availability to nine new commercial markets. While Surface Duo is undoubtedly a work in progress, this is not a sign of a disaster. It’s also doesn’t mean that Surface Duo is selling a ton either. Instead, the reason for the expansion is a lot more straightforward.

Here’s what you can do if Windows 10 update KB5001330 is causing issues

In this guide, we’ll show you the steps to get rid of the update KB5001330 to fix profile, gaming, and BSoD problems with the Windows 10 October 2020 Update and May 2020 Update.

These are the best PC sticks when you’re on the move

Instant computer — just add a screen. That’s the general idea behind the ultra-portable PC, but it can be hard to know which one you want. Relax, we have you covered!