Before You Format USB Using CMD, Pay Attention to 3 Things

Sue Wayne

Apr 10, 2023 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions

"My USB Drive keeps on hanging. I have tried other formatting methods but none turned out to be effective. I heard that the cmd format USB is a recommended solution, but i don't understand the cmd USB format command. Can anyone enlighten me on how to format the flash drive using cmd?"

It is no secret that the USB flash drive comes with more flexible features for different use. They're the widely used removable storage devices. However, when buying a USB pen drive, the possibility of formatting never crosses your mind.

In addition, as time goes, the necessity to format your flash disk drive rises. Not necessarily a negative situation, or when you want to fix a USB flash drive problem, but also when you realize you can demand more from it.

Here're the questions that bring things into perspective: What do people format the flash disk for? How to use cmd to format USB? How to recover formatted files from USB using CMD? This article gives you clear guidance on the questions above. Scroll down and read more!

Part 1: Top Reasons for Formatting a USB Flash Drive
Part 2: How to Format USB Using CMD?
Part 3: How to Recover Files From Formatted USB?

Part 1: Top Reasons for Formatting a USB Flash Drive

In this section, we will introduce some common reasons why and when do people choose to consider formatting their USB devices. Check if you also have the same problems with your USB flash drive.

1. To Change the File System

The default file system for most USB drives is Fat 32, which is only appropriate if you're using it on different operating systems like Mac OS, Linux, and Windows. But if you're using it exclusively on Windows, you can demand more from it by safely changing the file system to NTFS.

And here is how the NTFS file system will serve you better:

NTFS System file is more powerful and includes features that can host Active Directories
NTFS has better protection from unauthorized physical access
Your drive will support file large than 4GB
Work faster on Windows—It is built for speed, and even more

However, do not convert the file system to NTFS, if your flash drive is less than 2GB as it will affect its performance.

And to change from one file system to another, you must format your USB flash drive.

2. To Execute Fast Erasure of Bulk Data

Removing personal data from a flash disk drive might be the most common reason why many people format flash drives. This is more common when you want to donate, sell, or you've bought a new drive, and you want to get it set for new usage.

Note that if you're seeking data privacy by formatting, it isn't 100% secure as it doesn't erase the digital signature of your data in the storage medium. The new user can retrieve non-overwritten data using recovery software.

3. To Fix Bad Sector And Flash Drive Corruption

Sometimes flash disk drive denies access to the users due to the RAW data file system. Under this situation, Windows asks you to format it before you can use it. And there is no other way you can go about it.

If the data on such drive is essential, and you don't want to lose it but access it, you can format the USB drive with CMD then use a recovery tool to retrieve your data.

4. When You Want to Create A Bootable Flash Drive

If you want to create a bootable USB flash drive to use to deploy Windows server's essential or install an operating system to have Windows portable USB drive, you'll be forced to format the flash drive first.

A bootable Windows portable USB drive can save you a lot of time and energy of carrying your computer along.

5. When You Want to Get Rid of Viruses

If your computer is infected with viruses, formatting or erasing the flash drive and starting over will undoubtedly remove any virus. However, this isn't the appropriate way to deal with malware. If your backup still has the virus your computer will be re-infected.

With the right reasons to format your flash disk drive, the next question you'll ask yourself is:

How do you effectively format your drive?

As you know, there is a more straightforward way to format a flash disk drive on Windows. But you should head over to formatting USB using CMD if you're experiencing the following problems:

When Windows was unable to complete format
When the disk cannot be fixed and formatted using the disk manager.

6. Wipe Data with Speed And Efficiency

In the end, the most common and important reason to format a USB flash drive is that it is the most effective way to erase all the data on the flash drive. A quick format usually takes a few seconds, while a full format takes longer, but won't exceed half hour.

Part 2: How to Format USB Using CMD?

Now that you have knowledge about the reasons for formatting USB, it's time to know how to format USB using CMD. Among all the methods to format a USB drive, cmd format usb must be the most efficient and geek one, not to say it's super reliable performance. It is the best practice to format flash drive like a pro. Carefully follow the steps and notice the cmd USB format command below.

Step 1: Open the Windows Command Prompt and key in "diskpart" and click enter.

open the windows command prompt

Step 2: A Window will pop up and ask you to ask you if you want to allow the Diskpart software to run your computer. Click on the "Yes" button to proceed.

Step 3: A new window will pop up. Then Key in "List disk." It is vital you know which disk is the USB Key You're formatting. This command list all storage media connected on your PC.

showing list disk

Step 4: Key in "Select disk Y," where Y is the disk you wish to format. In this case, Y is 2. If your selection is successful, you'll see "Disk Y is now selected the selected disk."

fix usb no media

Step 5: Type "Clean" to format your flash disk drive with cmd. If the formatting is successful, the cmd will tell you that Diskpart has succeeded in cleaning the disk.

diskpart format type clean to format disk

Step 6: Then enter, "create partition primary" to create a specified partition.

create partition primary

Step 7: Key in (format fs=NTFS). If you like other file system format, change the command NTFS to the desired one such as exFAT, FAT32, etc.

change the command ntfs command ntfs

The process can take some time.

Step 8: Type "assign" and give a drive letter to the flash drive

assign diskpart

After assigning a drive letter, you have finished formatting a flash drive.

Please note that formatting has potential risk, as it erases all data that are previously on the pen drive. Therefore, we highly recommend that you should check the files on your flash drive before use cmd to format USB.

If you have unfortunately lost all data, don't be too nervous, you still have a chance to get your data back. Stop using the flash drive immediately, and keep reading!

Part 3: How to Recover Files From Formatted USB

Some circumstance like data changing to RAW format makes your data inaccessible and forces you to format your pen drive. After you've formatted your USB, if you didn't mean to lose your data, you can get your data back utilizing the correct recovery software. And in this case, we'll review one of the world's best data recovery tool for formatted USB flash drives— Wondershare Recoverit.

Features of Recoverit

Comprehensive Scan: The tool employs an advanced algorithm that scrapes deep into your flash disk drive to bring back all your formatted file that is accessible. The algorithm delivers a high recovery rate of 96%.
Clutter-Free User Interface: Quickly access the powerful and seamlessly knitted utilities to recover your formatted file. Recoverit utilizes graphics and words flawlessly to offer you an intuitive user interface that reduces recovery into a 3-step procedure—Select, Scan, and Recover.
Quick Data Recovery: Recover it has a faster processing speed in both operational and scanning functions that quickly permeates your flash drive to get the formatted files in no time.

Download | Win Download | Mac

Video: How to Recover Accidentally Lost Files

How to Use Recoverit Software to Recover Formatted Flash drive

Step 1: Launch the program

After a successful download and installation on your computer, you can begin to enjoy the free version of this App. Plugin your Flash disk drive to your PC and launch the Recoverit tool.

run recoverit

Step 2: Select the location

On the main screen select the flash disk drive you want to recover. Select the path or location, and click the 'start' button to initiate the scan.

computer data recovery

Step 3. Hit the 'Scan' button

Recoverit will thoroughly scan through your flash drive to get your formatted data. You will be able to see the entire list once it is populated.

scanning lost photos

Step 4: Preview and recover the data you want

Use the preview function to ascertain if you precisely need to retrieve the file. You can preview multiple data, including photos, videos, audios, pdfs, docs, etc. After the preview, hit the recover button to retrieve all the selected files.

preview recovered photos

The Bottom Line

Formatting a USB flash drive is a straightforward job on Windows systems. But at a time, you might not know how to format USB using CMD, the windows-suggested method. Instead, you'll get the error message "Windows was unable to complete the format." And that's where CMD USB formatting comes handy - it will wipe the disk clean. And if you never intended to lose your data, you should carefully choose the data recovery tool or end up with tons of inaccessible files.

Download | Win Download | Mac