How to format a USB drive (2024)

Learning how to format a USB drive is one of those seemingly insignificant skills, but one that you’ll use over and over again for years to come. Whether you're just getting rid of old obsolete data, clearing space, or you just need the USB drive to use a specific format, knowing how to do it properly well make your life that little bit easier.

WHAT DOES FORMATTING A USB DRIVE DO?

First and foremost, it will delete everything that’s on the drive, so make a backup elsewhere if you’ll need that data.

The word “format” refers specifically to how the USB drive will be organised, i.e. the filing system that it’s going to use. This is important as certain devices, programs, and software might not all be able to use the same formats.

HOW TO FORMAT A USB DRIVE IN WINDOWS

Unless you’re particularly data-conscience, the simple utility built into your Windows OS will be perfectly adequate. Here’s how to do it:

• Insert the drive into one your PC's vacant USB slots.
• Find the drive using the file explorer, right click it, and select “Format…” from the drop-down menu that appears.
• Now you’ll see a few options. You can ignore most of them, but where it says “File system” you can select which format you want the drive to use. FAT32 is the most widely compatible format, so pick this one for 32GB USB drives or smaller unless you’re formatting the drive for a specific use that requires a different format. For larger drives select exFAT instead.
• The next choice you need to make is whether you go for a “Quick Format” or not. A quick format will take just a few seconds and essentially remove all the data, leaving the drive in the format you chose earlier.
• Unticking this option will take far longer. The additional time is a result of more thoroughly deleting any files that are on the drive as well as the utility searching the drive for “Bad Sectors”. These are areas on the drive that are unreliable and therefor prone to retaining data. So, if the data on the drive has high enough importance that you absolutely have to make sure it’s gone, this is the way to go.

FILE SYSTEM OPTIONS EXPLAINED

We mentioned earlier that there are different format options to pick from, but what does that mean? What are the differences? There are basically a worrying number of file formats out there, but we’ll explain the most common ones for Windows here, as it’s likely you’ll never interact with some of the weirder ones.

• FAT32. This is the most common one, and it’s perfectly adequate for almost all purposes. Additionally, because it’s so common, almost any device or program can use it. From some of the older computers to games consoles, and even obsolete stuff like MP3 players, FAT32 will do fine here. However, FAT32 tops out at 32GB per partition and it also has an individual file size limit of 4GB. So if you have a larger drive or any of the files are larger than 4GB, you may want to opt for exFAT instead.
• exFAT. This is functionally identical to FAT32, but it doesn’t have that 4GB file limit and it supports partitions up to 128PB (that's petabytes, which is 1,024 terabytes.) It’s a little less widely compatible but will likely work for most devices.
• NTFS. This is what the file system on your computer uses for system storage because it’s more secure. You probably won’t end up formatting a USB in NTFS unless you need to for a specific purpose.