Fix ‘USB device format error’ in Windows – Guide

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors, and protocols for connection, communication, and power supplies (interface) between computers. There is a wide variety of USB hardware, including 14 different connector types. The latest USB standard is USB-C. First released in 1996, USB standards are maintained by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). There are four generations of USB: USB 1.x, USB 2.0, USB 3.x and USB4. ..

Steps to Fix USB Drive Not Formatted Error

  1. Boot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking.
  2. Connect your USB drive to your computer.
  3. Open the drive in Windows Explorer.
  4. Right-click on the drive and select Format.
  5. Select the FAT32 file system and click OK.
  6. Copy all of the files from your USB drive to a new location on your computer.
  7. Rename the files to match the file names on your original USB drive, if they are different than what is listed here.
  8. Re-insert the USB drive into your computer and restart it in Normal Mode. ..

Inspect USB storage media

Remove the USB drive from your computer and disconnect it from the power.

In Disk Management, right-click the disk that you want to format and click Format. In the Format dialog box, click File system and then click New Volume. In the New Volume dialog box, type a name for the volume (for example, C:) and then click OK. In the Format dialog box, select File system (NTFS) and then click OK. After formatting the disk, right-click it in Disk Management and then click New Simple Volume. Type a name for the volume (for example, D:) and then click OK. ..

If you have connected your external USB drive and clicked ‘Cancel’, make sure that the drive is formatted to Windows 10. ..

If the USB drive partition has a drive letter assigned, right-click it and choose “Change drive letter and path…”.

The computer is now in the “C: drive.” The “D: drive” was previously the “root” or main hard drive. To change the drive letter, choose and assign a new drive letter and press ‘OK’.

Run CHKDSK check

  1. Open the Start menu and type “chkdsk” into the search box.
  2. When CHKDSK appears in the results, right-click on it and select “Run as administrator.”
  3. When the CHKDSK window opens, click on the “Scan” button to begin scanning your computer for damaged or corrupted files.
  4. If CHKDSK finds any damaged or corrupted files, it will offer to fix them.
  5. If you want to prevent CHKDSK from fixing any damaged or corrupted files, you can mark them as bad by clicking on the “Mark Bad Sectors” button. ..

cmd. Type “netstat -an” to see active network connections.

To run the command prompt as administrator, right-click on it and choose “Run as administrator.” ..

grep -v ‘^.*$’ /etc/passwd This will print the contents of the /etc/passwd file, including any user and group accounts that are configured.

The system reports an error.

Where X is the USB drive letter, the computer can access files stored on that drive.

If the scan starts, let it finish. Scanning may take a while depending on your USB type, size, and interface. ..

If you have connected the USB drive correctly, you should be able to access it in File Explorer. If not, try reconnecting the USB drive and following the steps again. ..

If you still see the format prompt, continue to the next step.

Recover Data and Format USB Drive

  1. Remove all data from the USB drive.
  2. Format the USB drive to NTFS if it does not have FAT or exFAT file system.
  3. Copy all your data from the corrupted USB drive to the new formatted USB drive.

Stellar Data Recovery Professional is a software that can help you recover data from hard drives, SSDs and other storage devices.

Next, you will be asked to provide your name and email address. Please enter your name and email address below.

The USB drive volume listed under ‘Connected Drives’ will be scanned for malware. If any malware is found, the ‘Deep Scan’ toggle switch will be turned on and the scan will continue.

After checking, click the ‘File Type’ drop-down menu in the left pane to sort files according to their file types. ..

Select files for recovery by checking their checkboxes. ..

If you have a Microsoft account, sign in to your account and then click on the ‘Recover’ button. If you don’t have a Microsoft account, click on the ‘Create an Account’ button and then enter your name, email address, and password. Once you have logged in to your account, click on the ‘Browse’ button to choose a save location. You can choose to save your data to your computer or to an external hard drive. ..

Click “Start Saving” to save your recovered files to your desired location on your PC. ..

Final note

If you have a USB device that is not working properly, you may want to try to format it. This guide will show you how to do this in Windows. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us. Also, please share this article with your friends so they can also benefit from it.