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You may click Enter to keep it blank, or enter something, like in this case “Nexcopy”ĭISKPART will go through it’s process and inform you the process is complete. The next prompt will ask if you want to enter a Volume name, or the name you want to give to the device.
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The OS will ask you to insert the drive, which you already have, so press Enter “/fs” is for File System and that is defined by the UDF and “/q” is to instruct DISKPART, which is the program doing the work, to perform a quick format to create the UDF volume. You are now in the C drive and you may run the following commands:įormat G: /fs:UDF /q You will need Administrator privileges to do this.
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Windows 10 how to format usb drive windows#
Navigate to your C drive and, at that point, click into the search field of Windows Explorer and type “CMD” it can also be lower case, click Enter.
Windows 10 how to format usb drive portable#
Given the flash drive was specifically designed to be portable and quick access, the above action is most certainly going to happen sooner or later, which makes UDF a high risk file system.Ĭonnect the USB to your computer and note the assigned drive letterīe sure any programs or data are not accessing the drive. You are flying the dark as to why the USB no longer works and there are no tools available to help you figure it out. This means if the USB is pulled out while in operation and a bit is affected by the action, there are no tools to check the file system for errors. Without bogging down this post with ultra-technical information, from the above list, the most important to consider is the first, lack of filesystem check tools.
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The lack of fully-functional filesystem check tools.So why not format a USB as UDF in Windows? Here is a list: The truth here is exFAT will do just the same. If we take out the hope of formatting a USB with a UDF file system, some may feel the Universal Disk Format means the flash drive will work in anything, such as from Windows, to Mac, to Linux, Symbian and/or to proprietary system. It, UDF, is most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, can be used on flash drives, but does make it operate like one. Microsoft just doesn’t want you to do it and with good reason.īefore you get too far: If you think formatting a flash drive as UDF will make the thumb drive appear as an optical drive in the computer – you are mistaken!įrom the Wikipedia page about Universal Disk Format, UDF, the specification is governed by the Optical Storage Technology Association and because of that, many believe a UDF anything will work like a disc. During the format process, only the best suited file systems will be displayed in Windows.įirst, let me say it IS possible for Windows to format a USB flash drive as UDF (Universal Disk Format). Windows provides NTFS as an option for USB flash drives, but as mentioned before, NTFS is not the best file system for a USB drive. The proper file systems for a flash drive is: FAT, FAT32 or exFAT. When trying to format a flash drive in Windows (7 or 10) you will see the file system options best suited for the device.
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