How to format USB flash drive using FAT/FAT32/NTFS/exFAT & Recover Data after Format

Summary: This blog tells you various ways to format your USB Drive. Learn how you can format your USB Drive to FAT/ FAT32/ NTFS/ ex-FAT using Windows Explorer or Command Prompt. Also, learn how you can recover your files after formatting your USB Drive.

USB flash drives are the little stick-like devices that we carry along in our pockets as portable external storage. But these little devices pack quite a punch; they can double up as your mobile movie library, photo collection, backup drive, OS boot volume, or just a way to transfer stuff from one computer to another. Each time you wish to use them for a unique purpose, it requires cleaning them and sometimes even formatting them to a file system suited to the target environment. Formatting is also a good way to rid the memory stick of unwanted errors or virus/malware programs.

One important thing to remember is always taking a backup of your data before beginning the formatting a USB drive procedure.  

When it comes to formatting a USB drive, which format should you go for – FAT or NTFS? Or any other? Moreover, how can you change the format of your USB drive from FAT to NTFS to exFAT or FAT32? Let’s answer these questions one at a time.

Which file system should I choose for formatting my USB Drive?

When it comes to formatting a USB drive, which format should you go for – FAT or NTFS? Or any other? Moreover, how can you change the format size of your USB drive from FAT to NTFS to exFAT or FAT32? Let’s answer these questions one at a time.

In most Windows systems, while formatting a USB 4 file system choices are presented to you – NTFS, FAT, FAT32 or exFAT. You should choose one that suits your USB purpose as well as target environment. Additionally, here are the benefits of each of these file systems to help you make your choice.

Benefits of NTFS file system

If you select NTFS file system, you get:

Benefits of FAT / FAT32 file system

Note: For USB flash drives with capacity larger than 32GB, FAT / FAT32 formatting option is not available.

If you select FAT or FAT32 file system:

Benefits of exFAT file system

If you select exFAT file system, you get:

So if you’re USB flash drive which has a capacity greater than 32GB, you should select NTFS or exFAT. Other than that, you should choose the format that suits your work. For example, if you use the USB on multiple operating systems, going for FAT would be better.

How to format USB Flash Drive to FAT / FAT32 / NTFS / exFAT using Windows Explorer?

FAT or FAT 32 file system is the option selected by default for formatting a USB flash drive on Windows XP. FAT or FAT32 is also the default file system most music players in cars recognise. So if on plugging your USB into your car’s music player you’ve faced an error saying – “cannot read”, check its file system and change it.

Here’s the procedure to format USB Drive to NTFS / FAT / FAT32 / exFAT:

How to format USB Drive to NTFS / exFAT / FAT / FAT32 using Command Prompt?

Things to remember when formatting to NTFS

When formatting to NTFS file system, you need to remember to enable the “removal policy” of the USB to the “better performance” option. Here’s how to do this:

  1. Right-click on the USB and select “Properties”.
  2. Under the “Hardware” tab choose the USB drive from the listed disks.
  3. Click on “Properties”.
  4. Select “policies” -> “better performance”.
  5. Click “OK”.

You have formatted your USB drive successfully! Great! Now What if you want to again get back your precious photos, audios or videos???

The best possible solution to go for will be to download and run Stellar Photo Recovery Software. The addedbenefit of keeping Stellar Photo Recovery Software in your system is that you can take a backup of your entire drive. The top menu bar of the main screen section of the software includes a ‘Create Image‘ option which is used to create an image of your entire drive. This image can be used as a backup for recovering data at a later stage. To recover back your multimedia files, if lost accidentally,  you can try the demo version of the software absolutely free:

 

Final Words

Hope our pointers above will help you the next time you need to format your memory stick. Always remember to backup your data before beginning the formatting process and choose a file system that suits your requirement.

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