If you want to format a hard drive or USB flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for Windows and Mac to help you securely format hard drive/USB flash drive or memory card on a PC or a Mac. USB Disk Storage Format Tool by Authorsoft Corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your USB flash drives. The release date of USB Disk Storage Format Tool for Mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices.
Do You Have Any USB Format Problems?
'When I tried to format my 4 GB SanDisk USB pen drive, I got the message saying the disk is write-protected. Is there any USB format tool that can remove the write protection?'
'I just bought an 8GB Kingston data traveler for backup. But I got the error message saying [cannot format USB drive] when I tried to reformat the USB drive. What can I do?'
'I encountered the disk not formatted error on my 64GB Toshiba flash drive. Windows was unable to complete the format. Is there any way that I can use to format my USB flash drive for reuse successfully?'
'My SanDisk USB drive used to be originally 8GB when I bought it. But now the capacity only shows 250MB. How do I fix my USB drive to restore its original 8GB size back?'
What's a USB Format Tool?
USB format tool, also known as USB formatter, lets you solve many USB format problems. Formatting a flash drive is the best way to prepare the USB drive for use by a computer, plus it ensures the quickest way to troubleshoot many general USB issues. Typically, there are six reasons why you would want to format your USB drive or a pen drive.
- 1. To write files bigger than 4 GB on your USB drive
- 2. To create partitions larger than 32 GB
- 3. To make your USB drive faster when writing mostly large files to it
- 4. To fix a RAW, not accessible, not formatted USB drive
- 5. To restore a USB drive to its full capacity
- 6. To erase data completely from the drive
EaseUS Partition Master - The Best USB Format Tool in 2020
USB cannot format, USB drive is write-protected, USB format error, USB becomes raw, and more are the common issues you might encounter when you use a USB flash drive. At this moment, you have to format your USB flash drive to fix the problem. And it's likely that you can not do it with the Windows built-in disk management tool. That's when you need to find a third-party USB formatting tool for help. Which one is the best?
In fact, there are many formatting tools for USB flash drive like HP USB Disk Storage Formatting Tool, MMC Formatting tool, Panasonic SD Formatting Tool, Urescue Formatting Tool, SD formatting software, etc. But here we would like to recommend you EaseUS partition software for its powerful formatting capacity and easy-to-use features. It allows to format a USB flash drive from Sandisk, Kingston, Panasonic, Lexar, Samsung, Sony, etc easily in all complex cases, for example, to format write-protected USB flash drive, format USB drive back to the original size, format USB drive to FAT32 or NTFS, and more.
What makes it the TOP ONE USB format tool is far from these mentioned highlights. It's the only bootable USB format tool compared with the others.
Pros:
- Format USB with high speed in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Windows Servers
- Format USB drive even when Windows cannot complete the format
- Format USB drive to all possible file systems, including NTFS, FAT16/32, EXT2/3/4
Cons:
- You must download and install it on your PC to be able to use
- No macOS version is available
Now you can try the following guide to format your USB drive in simple steps. (Formatting will delete all data on the USB flash drive, back up all your files before starting the process.)
How to format your USB flash drive with EaseUS USB formatting tool
Step 1: Select the USB drive to format.
Connect the USB drive or pen drive to your computer. Download and launch EaseUS partition software. Right-click the USB drive you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: Set the drive letter and file system.
Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Check the warning box.
Click 'OK' if you see the Warning window. If you have important data on it, back up the data in advance.
Step 4: Apply the changes.
Click the 'Execute operation' button first, and then click 'Apply' to format the USB drive.
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - Best for Windows XP
The HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool was created to format USB drives and desktop computers that were produced prior to 2012 and computers that run Windows XP. The formatting tool will work with newer Windows operating systems but results may vary.
So, to achieve the best USB format result, Windows XP users can consider the USB Disk Storage Format Tool to format a USB drive, flash drive or pen drive.
Pros:
- It is best used on USB drives and it strips and re-formats your drives
- The GUI is very familiar because it looks just like the Windows XP formatting tool
Cons:
- It may cause crashes on modern computers with newer operating systems
- It is not very fast compared to modern formatting tools like EaseUS Partition Master
How to format a USB drive with HP Disk Storage Format Tool
Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your Windows XP computer, click Devices and select the USB drive you want to format.
Step 2. From the File System menu, select a file system and enter a name for the reformatted disk in the Volume Label input box.
Step 3. Click the Quick Format option to enable a quick format. If you leave this option unchecked, a slower, low-level format will be performed.
Step 4. Click Start to begin the USB formatting.
Three Built-in USB Format Tools in Windows 10/8/7
- 1. Windows File Explorer
- 2. Windows Disk Management
- 3. Windows Diskpart Command
Windows has default programs to let users format USB pen drive and a variety of hard drive storage devices as well. It's not designed to solve every USB corruption issues. However, it's good to have the first attempt when your USB drive starts malfunctioning.
1. Windows File Explorer: Format a USB drive to NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT
Windows File Explorer can't be more familiar to us Windows users since it provides the most accessible way to make changes to a local disk drive or a removable drive you connected to the computer, one of which is 'Format'.
To be able to use File Explorer to format a connected USB flash drive, Windows must recognize the drive and assign it a drive letter.
Video recorder free download for mac. To format a USB flash drive using File Explorer, use these steps:
1. Open File Explorer.
2. Choose 'This PC' from the left pane.
3. Under the 'Devices and drivers' section, right-click the connected USB flash drive and select the 'Format' option.
4. On the format window, select the NTFS option.
5. Click 'Start'.
2. Windows Disk Management - Format a Not Showing USB Drive
Disk Management is the other native Windows program that is available in Windows 10/8/7. It enables users to undertake many more tasks to manage a disk as they want. It comes with the option of 'Format'. Chances are when you need to format a RAW USB drive that is not showing up in the File Explorer, you can dive into the Disk Management to do the format.
Step 1. Right-click on This PC and navigate to Manage > Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the USB drive, and choose 'Format'.
Step 3. On the format window, check the box of 'Perform a quick format', and in the same way, you need to choose a file system and allocation unit size.
Epson xp 440 download for mac. Step 4. Click 'OK' to start formatting the USB drive.
3. Windows Diskpart Command - Advanced USB Formatter for Professionals
Windows Command Prompt is a built-in tool in Windows that can troubleshoot all kinds of computer problems with various commands. You can use the Diskpart command as the USB formatter to format an external USB drive. This method is somewhat higher-leveled, but so far the most utilized way to tackle some tricky issues.
Step 1. Enter Windows Command Prompt. Press Windows + R keys and type cmd. Run as administrator.
Step 2. On the Command Prompt window, you need to enter the following command lines each by each:
diskpart
list disk
select disk + number (If the USB flash drive is disk 2, then enter disk 2)
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs (If you need to format to other file systems, replace ntfs with the target file system like FAT32)
assign
Step 3. Type exit to close the window.
People Also Ask
1. How do I format a USB drive?
- Connect the USB drive or pen drive to your computer.
- Download and launch EaseUS partition software. Right-click the USB drive you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
- Assign a new partition label, file system, and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'
2. What happens when you format a USB?
It will erase the data. Do not choose format unless you have back up your important files. But if you choose 'Quick Format' on Disk Management, you can recover data through the third-party software.
Usb Format Drive Tool
3. Do you need to format a USB flash drive?
Usb Format For Mac
USB Flash drive formatting has its advantages. It helps you to compress files so that more space can be used on your custom USB flash drive. For instance, formatting is good to refresh your USB flash drive.