Flashdisk is one of the storage media that you can use practically because of its relatively small size and of course it is portable. It is undeniable, as complete or portable as any laptop you use, you will still be constrained by its dimensions which can be considered large and quite heavy.
That’s why you need backup storage media that is more portable so it’s easier to carry anywhere. There are many choices of storage media that can be used. There is an external hard drive, micro SD, or flash . Although it is seen from the functionality and portability, flash still dominates between the two others.
At the time of use, there are times when you have to check the flash. Because like other storage media, flash also has a size limit. Not to mention if your flash is infected with a virus. To avoid further infection to your computer or laptop, you must format your flash drive.
Contents
How to Format Flashdisk
In this article, we will discuss how to format a USB in command prompt. There are 2 ways to format the flash which we will explain, the first through Windows Explorer (the most common way) and the second through CMD.
We did this tutorial on a flash, but if you want to try it on a hard disk, this method will still be relevant and usable.
1. Format the Flash Drive with Windows Explorer
1. First, please plug the flash drive into the USB port on your computer or laptop. Turn on your computer too. Perform a backup or backup of all the data on the flash.
2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your USB flash drive. Make sure that the drive is the flash drive that you want to format.
3. Next, right-click on the symbol of your USB flash drive, click Format.
4. Then you will be directed to the Format USB Drive window. Check the capacity of the flash size, then make sure that the file system used is correct. If everything is correct, please click Start to start the formatting process.
5. After you click Start, you will be directed to a pop up box containing information reminding you that formatting the media will erase all data. That’s why we remind you to be able to back up the data on the previous flash. When finished, please click OK.
6. Wait until the formatting process is complete. Usually it doesn’t take long. The process will be completed and marked with a pop up box containing information that the formatting process has been completed. Please click OK.
7. You can immediately open Windows Explorer and will find your USB flash drive is clean and ready to be filled with fresh new data.
2. Format the Flashdisk with Command Prompt (CMD)
In addition to using windows explorer, you can also perform the formatting process using the command prompt. You can do this if your flash drive is problematic and cannot be accessed using Windows Explorer. To perform the formatting process, please plug the flash drive into the USB port on your computer or laptop.
1. Next, open Command Prompt as Administrator as shown below.
2. After the command prompt opens, please type diskpart . With this command, you will enter the utility.
3. Then continue by typing the command list disk. With this command, you will be able to display the active disk on your computer or laptop. Please check the listed list. You can pay attention to the disk number, to make sure you don’t choose the wrong one, please check the size of the disk.
4. If you already know it, please type the next command, namely select disk 1. This command means that you select the disk with the number 1 which you believe to be a flash disk.
5. Next type the clean command. This command means that you instruct the command prompt to clean the data on your flash drive.
6. Then you type the command list disk again to see the results. You will also be able to see an asterisk to the left of Disk 1, this is because you have previously selected disk 1 with the select command.
7. Then you can continue by typing the command create partition primary.
8. Then also type the command select partition 1.
9. And finally you can type the active command to activate the partition you have created.
10. Next you are ready to do the formatting process. To perform the formatting process, please type the command with the following format “ FS format=[selected file system] label=[label name displayed in windows explorer] ”. For an example, you can look at the image below.
11. Finally, you can type the command assign letter=[the letter you display as a drive marker in windows explorer] . For example like the image below.
12. When finished, you can end it by typing the exit command and closing the command prompt window.
13. You can see the results by opening windows explorer and right clicking on the USB flash drive.
Those are some ways to format the flash that you can try. I suggest you to use the first method because it is quite simple and very easy to implement, but if the first method doesn’t work, you are fine to use the second method, but you must be careful not to format your hard drive!
