What to Do if Windows Was Unable to Format Your Pen Drive

Give a try to these quick solutions now

5 min. read

Updated onAugust 2, 2024

updated onAugust 2, 2024

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To fix various driver issues on your PC, you will need a dedicated tool to find the freshest and the original drivers. You can use PC HelpSoft Driver Updater to do it in 3 easy steps:

USB flash drives(pen drives, flash sticks) almost entirely moved disks from the picture. They are fast, you can write anything you want whenever you want, and they come large in storage but small in size. Perfect data companions.

However, due to extensive use, they tend to get corrupt, start misbehaving, and won’t work as intended. There’s thisWindows was unable to format pen drivewhen users tried to format the pen drive within the Windows interface.

Luckily, you can fix this or, even better, use alternative options to format the drive. The important thing is not to have any encryption on your drive, as Windows won’t format encrypted drives. Everything else you need is below.

How to format a pen drive if Windows failed to?

1. Try repairing the pen drive

Firstly, let’s try switching USB ports and rebootingPC. Sometimes, the problem isn’t in the flash drive (pen drive) but rather in theUSB port. If yourPCcan still not format the drive, even when plugged into a different port, we suggest going for repairs.

These are not uncommon, as flash drives are frequently forcibly plugged out. This and frequent read/write changes can lead to corruption or bad sectors.

To fix the affected drive, follow these steps:

If you’re still troubled by theWindows was unable to format pen drive error, continue with theother provided steps.

2. Check drivers

Now, in this step, there are two variations. It depends. If yourPCcan ‘see’ theUSBbut can’t format it, you must check the pen drive’s drivers. On the other hand, if it’s unable to see theUSB drivein the first place, theUniversal Serial Buscontrollers should be your concern.

The latter rarely occurs, and if it does, instead of driver issues, it points towards the flash drive malfunction. Nonetheless, it’s worth giving it a try.

Here’s how to reinstall the pen drive driver:

And this is how to reinstall USB controllers drivers:

In any case, if you need to manage your drivers safely and more automatically using practical tools, you can consider a driver manager likePC HelpSoft Driver Updater.

3. Format the USB pen drive with Disk Management

Now, if the system on its own can’t access or format aUSB pen drive, there are alternatives. More than few. The first is Disk Management. This utility is part of Windows, and it’s used, as you might assume, to manage all storage disks, both internal and external.

It can, of course, carry the load of formatting your pen drive without any issues. You need to know where to find it.

Follow these steps to format theUSB pen drivewith Disk Management:

4. Format the USB pen drive with Command Prompt

Disk Management should allow you to format theUSB pen drivewithout problems. However, we decided to add an extra method just for the sake of variety. You can do everything you do within the Windows UI through Command Prompt.

Of course, if you know a proper set of commands to use, in this case, we’ll go with the diskpart utility commonly used to format and assign storage drives.

Here’s how to format theUSB pen drivewith Command Prompt:

The Diskpart utility is also of great use whenWindows 11 can’t detect an exFAT drive.

With that said, we can conclude this article. If you have any questions or alternative ways to deal with theWindows was unable to format pen driveerror, feel free to tell us in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you.

What to Do if Windows Was Unable to Format Your Pen Drive#

How to format a pen drive if Windows failed to?#

1. Try repairing the pen drive#

2. Check drivers#

3. Format the USB pen drive with Disk Management#

4. Format the USB pen drive with Command Prompt#