How to format USB Drive in Windows 10

There are some situations where you need to copy files which are of larger size to your USB drive to carry it somewhere, the standard FAT32 format of file system will not support to copy single file which is of size more than 4GB. You need to format your USB Drive to NTFS which support higher file sizes. This is just one situation where you need to format your USB Drive and there are so many situations and reasons why you need to format USB Drive in your day to day life.

Format USB

The reason could be a short list and will be presented to you below and luckily we have some good softwares available to format USB Drive for Windows platform. Please be noted that the file system type in Linux box and Windows Box are very different and the file system format FAT is compatible with both OS types. So, whenever you want to copy files from Windows to Linux, you need to format your USB Drive with FAT file system format. Below are a few reasons where you need to format USB Drive.

Reasons to format USB Drive in Windows PC

  • FAT file system type doesnt support file sizes greater than 4GB, you need to format it to NTFS format which supports file sizes greater than 4GB.
  • Cross Platform compatibility, if you need to copy files form Windows to Linux, you need to format USB Drive from NTFS to FAT.
  • If you want to create partitions in your USB Drive or Hard Disk, you cannot create file system partitions greater than 32GB if you have FAT type file system. Then you need to format the drive to NTFS which supports partition sizes up to 2TB.
  • FAT offers faster copy if there are many small size files, then you need to format USB to FAT type for faster copying.
  • The worst case, when your USB Drive is affected by virus, you need to format it for sure.
  • Before making your USB to bootable USB drive, you need to format it and these are a few reasons why you need to format USB Drive.

There are some tools using which you can format your USB Drive and the best one is EaseUS, but the free version is not available. The pro version costs $39.95, which you can buy for enterprise use. For normal day to day uses, you can use the default tool that comes with Windows 10/8.1/8/7 OS. Here is the simple procedure how you can format your USB Drive.

How to Format USB Drive in Windows PC

  • Connect USB Drive to your Windows PC.
  • Go to My Computer or This PC
  • Right Click on USB Drive and Select Format option.
Click on Format
Click on Format
  • Choose File system format either FAT or NTFS
  • Choose Allocation Unit Size or leave it default, if you want to copy small sized files choose small allocation unit size.
Select filesystem type
Select filesystem type
  • Enter Volume label it is optional. Enter the name for your USB Drive.
  • Check Quick Format and click on Start button to start formatting.
Finish Format
  • Once the format is completed, click on Finish button and that the end of the process.

Congratulations, you have formatted your USB Flash Drive using Windows PC. If you have any more doubts regarding the default file system sizes for FAT and NTFS and performance related issues, shoot your comment below in comments section.

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