A write-protected drive cannot be formatted, neither can the files in the drive be copied/transferred to another storage. Write protection is used to protect the files saved into a particular drive or disc.

These are some typical problems you could run across while attempting to format a USB device. Also, some USB devices that are 'write-protected' can prevent you from correctly formatting them. If a USB disk is not formatted correctly, it will likely become irreparably destroyed.

USB Format ProblemsĪlthough formatting a USB drive may seem simple, it's actually not that simple. So, if you have a problematic USB drive, you can use any of these USB formatting tools (listed below) to try fixing the drive. USB format tools can be used to format any type of USB device, including corrupted ones. When a drive is formatted, everything inside is deleted – to get back the formatted data, you will need a professional data recovery program.Ī USB format tool is a software app or program that allows you to format a USB device successfully. Now, in order to be able to save your data on a new USB drive, you might need to re-format it to a certain file system depending on your computer system or device.įormatting is the technical process of deleting everything stored on a storage media/drive/device to change the file system format, add new partitions, or return it to a default state. The FAT32 file system is the default file system on most USB devices since they are pre-formatted with it. Universal Serial Bus devices, shortened as USB devices, are portable external devices that can be connected to a wide range of systems and devices like PCs, desktops, mobile phones, media players, cameras, and other devices. Click OK when you are done to permanently format your usb flash drive and return it to it's original state.What is a USB format Tool & What Does It Do? Here you can select the type of formatting that you wish to do, whether it is normal or encrypted, and how you would like your USB drive formatted. In one minute or so, a Windows Explorer-like menu will appear.Īt the 'My Computer' window, right click on your USB drive and click on properties. To test if the tool is working fine for you, follow all on screen instructions, and then plug in the USB drive and run the program. If none of these are the case in your USB drive, use the Windows program to format the USB disk storage format it. To check if your USB drive is properly formatted, run the 'fsck' command and see if a list of errors is generated. This is the free tool provided by Microsoft for formatting USB disks. Simply run the program, follow the on screen instructions, and you are done.

You can now format a USB disk (4GB or more) in Windows by using the built-in tool called 'Authorware USB Disk Format'.

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