Unable to format USB memory stick

[Jacques25]

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I am having a 2Gb Sandisk USB stick which is i think got corrupted due to some unknown reason. Anyways, i am not aware of that coz i used to keep backup of every USB drive i have. The problem i facing is that when i tried to format the pendrive windows gives me error saying, "Windows was unable to format the device". I tried it many times but unable to format USB memory stick. Please help

[Maq.H]

If you have ever tried to format a USB thumb drive or memory stick, you may have noticed that the only options you get are FAT and FAT32 file systems. Anyways, try formatting it in NTFS format.Just go through this steps:-

1. Right click My Computer and select Manage.

2. Open the Device Manager and find your USB drive under the Disk Drives heading.

3. Right click the drive and select Properties.

4. Choose Policies tab and select the "Optimize for performance" option.

5. Click OK.

6. Open My Computer.

7. Select Format on the flash drive.

8. Choose NTFS in the File System dropdown box.

9. Device Formatting is completed

[Regina]

You can also try formatting your drive using disk management.To do so:-

• Just right click on My computer.
• Select Manage.
• Select Disk Management
• Find and select your Pendrive and format it.

Alternatively, you can open it from the command prompt

• Open the command prompt and type diskmgmt.msc.
• Press Enter
• Select the pen drive, right click on it and click on Format.

Thats it !!

[Jacques25]

Hey, that worked for me. I easily formatted the USB stick from the Disk Management without any errors. Thanks for the quick and valuable help. Keep it Up !!

[luissino]

thanaks for the tips
It really worke, I did go to disk management and create a new partition than format the new partition , I could not recover the damaged partition or space there, but it let me a workable memory .
thanks a lot,

[markie24]

i also have a problem about my usb
i cant copy or even save files on it
and when i try to format it
it says that"windows was unable to complete the format"
please help me!!
i try to format it in ntfs and also ion comand prompt but its not working
thanks for help in advance!!

[Larry ward]

Originally Posted by markie24

i cant copy or even save files on it
and when i try to format it it says that"windows was unable to complete the format"

That means your drive is now no longer working. Its now dead. Usually this happens when you pull out your USB stick with out doing it Safely Remove. I think, you need to buy a new one now... It will not work.

[alidq]

my USB drive showing removable drive in my computer.. i have tried all process e.g managing from my compuet AND cmd in run diskmgmt.msc but USB be drive is not detecting in thata what should i do..???? help plz..

[Bon-Z]

Originally Posted by alidq

my USB drive showing removable drive in my computer.. i have tried all process e.g managing from my compuet AND cmd in run diskmgmt.msc but USB be drive is not detecting in thata what should i do..???? help plz..

Can you tell us how old is your usb drive? What is the make or model of the usb drive that you are having? Also, did you try plugging it in another usb port of your computer to find whether it is a usb port problem or the usb drive? Have you tested the usb drive in another computer? I think that due to oldness your usb drive might be dying.