Windows 10: usb drive detected, but not able to format or do anything with it

Discus and support usb drive detected, but not able to format or do anything with it in Windows 10 Gaming to solve the problem; windows 10 btw, i have a usb drive which i cant remember the last thing i did with but when i plugged it in it said you need to format D to use it, so... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Gaming' started by ssd90000tb, May 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM.

  1. usb drive detected, but not able to format or do anything with it


    windows 10 btw, i have a usb drive which i cant remember the last thing i did with but when i plugged it in it said you need to format D to use it, so i press format and it says windows was unable to complete the formatting. even when i tried exfat, fat32, and ntfs it gave an error.also tried deleting the partition in disk manager but i wasnt able to, it said request is not supported. can someone tell me a fix

    :)
     
  2. anvarali Win User

    Converting or formatting a USB flash drive to fat32

    Hi, I'm Anvar, I'd be glad to help you today on this

    If FAT32 option not showing in format , suggest to use diskpart command line tool

    kindly fellow below steps

    1. Type cmd in windows search ad right cick on it and click run as administrator

    2. Next you can type the command diskpart in Command Prompt window. Press Enter to launch DiskPart utility.

    Then you can type the command "list disk", press Enter and all detected disks will be displayed with detailed information. Check carefully which disk is your USB drive. You may identify the USB by checking the size. n this example we are assuming it as disk 3

    Step 4. Select and clean the target USB drive

    Type the command "select disk 3" and press Enter to select the target USB flash drive. Then type "clean" command and press Enter. DiskPart will wipe disk data.

    Step 5. Format USB flash drive/pen drive with CMD (Command Prompt)

    Tip: Before you format USB using CMD, you can confirm again that you’ve selected the right disk, to avoid formatting the wrong disk. You can type list disk command again, press Enter, and the selected disk should have a “*” mark before the disk number.

    After that, you can type the command create partition primary, and press Enter.

    Then type the command "format fs=ntfs" or "format fs=fat32", and press Enter to format the USB flash drive to NTFS or FAT32 format. Optionally you can add a “quick” flag after the command for a faster format.

    Step 6. Assign a drive letter for the USB

    Continue to type the command "assign letter=h", replace “h” with the preferred drive letter you want to assign to the USB drive. Press Enter to assign a letter for the USB drive and make it visible in Windows File Explorer.

    Type exit to close DiskPart and type exit to close Command Prompt window.

    After formatting the USB flash drive in CMD (Command Prompt), the USB drive should be shown in Windows File Explorer and is available for storing files

    Note :_ Exlude quotes while typing commands

    (source :- minitool.com)

    Hope this helps.
     
  3. Fernandz Win User
    How To Format A Write Protected Flash Memory ?

    ¿You already tried this one?...

    Run CMD


    1. diskpart
    2. list disk

    Then in the 3º step, put the correct number of disk in the list for the usb flash (if it's listed in disk 3, then you'll have to write select disk 3).

    2. select disk #
    3. clean
    4. create partition primary
    5. select partition 1
    6. active
    7. format fs=fat32
    8. assign
    9. exit

    with that commands you will format the flash drive in fat32, if you have a large drive you can select also "format fs=ntfs" in step 7.

    good luck!
     
  4. usb drive detected, but not able to format or do anything with it

    Unable to format USB drive in Windows 10

    IF windows are not able to format USB drive then apply these manual steps as follows:
    First open run command box > Now, write diskpart and hit enter > Once
    Diskpart is open > Now writing the commands, one by one.
    Command 1: List disk
    [Now, it will list Disk 0 and Disk 1 in your PC. Clearly Disk 0 is your hard disk and Disk 1 is the USB flash drive.]
    Now, write the commands given below One by One.
    Command 2: Select disk
    Command 3: clean
    Command 4: create partition primary
    Command 5: active
    Command 6: select partition 1
    Command 7: format fs=fat32
    [In the above command fat32 is chosen as a file system, if you want to choose NTFS, you can choose that as well.]
    It will take time. Do not close the window before it's completed.
    This manual steps may help you to format the drive. Thanks
     
    SandraMcgray, May 24, 2025 at 2:20 PM
    #4
Thema:

usb drive detected, but not able to format or do anything with it

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