Windows 10: windows cannot complete format of usb flash drive

I have a 1TB usb flash drive that was Ex-Fat32 formatted. I want to put my System images for my laptop and desktop on this drive and when I try to format the drive to NTFS I get the same error every time "Windows could not complete the format of this drive" but it doesn't say why. When I try to run a disk check on the drive I get the message that "this disk cannot be checked because it is not formatted'; would you like to format now?" which of course puts me right back in to the same issue.

Is there any other way to check the usb drive for errors and to format it to NTFS?

thanks,

DanielJ

:)

 

How To Remove Windows 10 Install Files From USB Flash Drive

Connect your thumb drive

Click Start > File Explorer > This PC

Right click the thumb drive

Click Format

If that does not work, try formatting from Command Prompt:

How to Format Local Disks, USB Storage and SD Cards ... - groovyPost

also see:

Fix Windows Unable to Complete Format On USB Flash Drive

 

NFTS from Fat32

hi! this is the reason I was looking into making the changes, but perhaps it is not a good idea after all.

You cannot start a computer from a USB
flash drive that is formatted to ...

https://support.microsoft.com/.../you-cannot-start-a-computer-from-a-usb-flash-drive-...

• Cached

Therefore, the Windows operating system does not create a master
boot record (MBR) on the USB flash drive when you format the flash drive to use the
FAT32 file system. ... The
FAT32 startup code does not support starting a computer from a super floppy disk without an MBR.

My attempt was to use the 256Gb flash drive to establish a 'complete system copy' and include all other programs and apps all in one place. but perhaps MS has got that far as yet, my program still pops up with 'make a copy of your files with CD' ..
thanks for your input

 

Have you tried diskpart? I don't know whether it'll work with USB flash drives but it's worth checking.

• Open a Command Prompt W/ administration rights.
  • Type in "DiskPart" in command line.
  • Type in "list disk" in command line to show all disks in this machine.
  • Use "select" to set the focus to the specified partition.
    For example "select disk 1".
  • Use "clean" command to remove GPT disk from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors.
  • Go back to Disk Management, you can see GPT disk is "Not Initialized" now.
  • Within Disk Management, right click on disk info, choose "Initialize Disk", You can see GPT disk is "Unallocated" now.
  • Right click on disk info, choose "New Partition…", follow Partition Wizard and format it.

 

Please see this thread, and respond to the same questions and suggestions I made to that poster. There is a high probability that your "1TB USB flash drive" is counterfeit; i.e. it is actually a much lower capacity device which has been hacked to appear larger.

Does Windows 10 support disk on key 1TR?

 

I use diskpart all the time to format. After clean, type create part pri, then sel part 1, then format fs=ntfs quick, or format fs=fat32 quick, then assign. To make it active if you want it bootable just type active. Then you can copy all your files from a mounted ISO to it, and boot with it. If you don't want to do that just skip the active part. After you are done with diskpart, you type exit.

 

I managed to get all the way to formatting the usb drive. In Disk Management there is not option that I can see to initialize disk and I am just unable to manage anything at the command line without specific instructions so that didn't work. I am not sure how to get this drive formatted now and I need to get coffee!

 

This will work assuming drive is genuine.

diskpart

list disk

select disk n (n=number of usb drive - usually last in list)

clean (wipes everything so be sure you have selected right disk)

create partition primary

select partition 1

format fs=ntfs quick

assign

exit

exit

The sd card will be ready to use.