Can’t format USB Drive
These are some of the things you can do if you can’t format the USB Drive on your Windows 11/10 computer: Let us talk about them in detail.
Windows was unable to complete the format
1] Make sure the Drive is not Write-Protected
The first thing you need to make sure, before concluding that something is wrong with your USB Drive, is if it’s write-protected. To clear the USB write-protection, we are going to use the Command Prompt. Launch Command Prompt as an administrator and type the following commands. Note: Replace “X” with the number of your USB Drive. You can confirm the number by looking at the Size. Now, your Drive is not write-protected. Try formatting it, if the error is because of this issue, it will be fixed. Fix: USB error There is no media in the specified device
2] Scan your PC & USB for Virus
One way to fix the issue is by scanning your computer for viruses and malware. You can use any free antivirus or Microsoft Defender. In this section, we are going to use Microsoft Defender. To scan your computer for malicious files, launch Settings by Win + X > Settings and click Update & Security > Windows Security > Open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Scan options > Windows Defender Offline scan > Scan now. Let the Windows Defender scan your system and eliminate all the viruses and malware.
3] Run CHKDSK scan on USB
With the help of the CHKDSK command, we are going to fix the corrupted USB drive. This will fix all the bad sectors of your drive. To do that, launch Command Prompt as an administrator, type the following command, and hit Enter. Note: Replace “g” with your USB’s Drive letter. If the issue is because of a corrupted drive, it will be fixed.
4] Format Drive using Command-line
If you can not format your USB Drive from File Explorer, try doing the same with the Command Prompt. To do that, launch Command Prompt as an administrator, type the following commands and hit Enter. Note: Replace “X” with the number of your USB Drive. You can confirm the number by looking at the Size. Note: If you have chosen fat32, replace ntf with fat32. Hopefully, this has helped you in fixing the “not able to format USB Drive in Windows 10” error. Read Next: The device is currently in use – USB error.
