Cannot format usb flash drive

Brink · 12 Feb 2010

You're most welcome Cimage. Please let us know how it went for you. :)

xarden · 24 May 2010

theog said:

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Open command prompt.

Type in command line

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (USB Stick)
CLEAN ALL
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT=FAT
ASSIGN
EXIT
EXIT

Should be: FORMAT FS=FAT
or FS=FAT32 if you're that way inclined.

adi19956 · 02 Jun 2010

hey, I tried what you said and received this error then in the event log for my details I found this CONFUSED

Brink · 02 Jun 2010

Hello Adi, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It looks like you have a bad block/sector on the hard drive. You might see if running check disk on the drive may help it and allow you to clean it afterwards.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

adi19956 · 03 Jun 2010

hey Shawn, thanks for the reply

I tried that and apparently there are no problems... I've done it on two computers, one bought with Windows 7, one upgraded to it from Vista. Neither works. I've tried a USB stick and 3 micro SD cards with a USB converter, nothing works :'(
could it be a problem with 7??? It's just I swear it all worked with previous versions of Windows.

Brink · 03 Jun 2010

Adi,

I must admit that I'm not sure what may be wrong with it. Are you able to format it normally? Do you have any write protection enabled on the USB? Give it a try on another computer. If it still will not work, then the USB flash key may be bad.

adi19956 · 04 Jun 2010

tried 3 computers, all running 7, no access to anything but 7 at the moment. In total have tried 11 USB sockets split between the various computers. I would try and find out if it have write protection... but the computers won't let me access it :O arh well

amjo92 · 29 Oct 2010

theog said:

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Open command prompt.

Type in command line

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (USB Stick)
CLEAN ALL
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=FAT32
ASSIGN
EXIT
EXIT

I don't know if i'm too late to this thread but I have a problem with my USB.
I need to format it but I keep getting an error saying windows cannot preform this task. I tried your method but when i get to "format fs=fat" it says 0% complete.
It then says that the parameter is incorrect.
I don't know what to do can anyone help?

Brink · 29 Oct 2010

Hello Amjo, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It was just a mistake in that post. It should have been the command below instead. :)

format fs=fat32

Partition or Volume - Create New

Hope this helps,
Shawn

karlsnooks · 29 Oct 2010

amjo,
You can also format fs=ntfs

Depending on my intended use of the usb, i either format as fat 32 or ntfs and the vast majority of the time I use ntfs.

My Win7 DVD is on a ntfs formatted stick. My Win 7PE likewise and my Win 7 Repair Disc is also ntfs.

Cannot format usb flash drive

HELP!!