Formatting A USB Flash Drive To FAT/FAT32/NTFS/exFAT using " Command Prompt"

Step 1- Plug your USB flash drive in USB slot on your gadget

Step 2 - Go to "start" > " all accessories " > " command prompt "

OR

Go to "start" > " Run " > [Type " cmd " and press enter]. You'll find a command prompt window.

Step 3 - Type " format Z: /fs:FAT " for formatting to FAT

OR Type " format Z: /fs:FAT32 " for formatting to FAT32,

OR Type " format Z: /fs:NTFS " for formatting to NTFS,

OR Type " format Z: /fs:EXFAT " for formatting to EXFAT, where " Z " is the letter of your Memory stick. Press Y=Yes or N=No to proceed/stop the formatting

NOTE - If you are formatting to NTFS file system then you need to enable the " Removal policy " of the USB flash drive to " Better performance " option which can be done easily.

1. Right click on pendrive and choose properties

2. Select " Hardware " tab and choose the USB flash drive/pendrive from the listed disks

3. Click on " Properties"

4. Select " Policies " tab and enable " Better performance " option, click " OK ".

Now try formatting to NTFS using command prompt or directly. These need to be done otherwise windows cannot format to NTFS file system.

Which file system should you choose for formatting?

In windows 7, you will find different file systems : FAT, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT. If data storage capacity of your USB flash drive is larger than 32GB then you won't see FAT, FAT32 in formatting options.

FAT & FAT32 Benefits

• It takes up less space on USB flash drive.
• It is compatible with virtually all operating systems.
• Scan-disk is very quick
• Less disk writing operations which makes USB drive faster and less memory usage.

NTFS Benefits

• Provides increased security, reliability with file encryption.
• Create partitions greater than 32GB.
• Read as well as write files bigger than 32GB and up to maximal partition size.
• Less space is wasted.
• Compression of files to save disk space.
• Users permission for individual files and folders.
• Small file clusters.
• Management of disk space is better.

exFAT Benefits

• Better disk space management
• Read as well as write files bigger than 4GB
• create partitions greater than 32GB

What to choose?

During a normal format process, data in memory stick is removed and scan is performed for bad sectors. During " Quick Format " process, no scan is carried out and only data is removed. So choose as per your situation, NTFS is more flexible but it can get rather subjective depending on the situation, work habits.

For USB flash drive size - 0bytes to 512MB - Go for FAT

For USB flash drive size - 512MB to 8192MB - Go for FAT32

For USB flash drive size - 8192MB or larger - Go for NTFS

Thank you for reading this article............