My Usb Not Formatting

Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions

1. Windows Unable To Format Usb
2. My Usb Is Not Formatting
3. Flash Drive Needs Formatting Error
4. Unable To Format Usb Disk

When you don't need the data saved on USB or when you are not satisfied with the file system of USB drive, you may format the drive. But the problem is: some people said they were unable to format USB. This is an issue happened to many USB drive users. But don't worry; I'll show you how to fix the problem in different ways. Although it erases all your data present on the disk, but saves your USB drive and gives it a new life free from viruses, trojans and all other crappy stuffs. Now, if your USB is corrupted in a way that once you do a right click and format, it displays a message saying. Windows was unable to complete the format. Check if the external hard drive gets recognized in Disk Management. To open disk management: - Click Start, type Disk Management in the Start search box and hit Enter. If the drive gets detected in disk management, I'd suggest you to assign a drive letter and see if that does the trick. Take out your write protected USB drive to check whether there is a lock switch or not, if there is a physical lock switch on the side, you should slide the switch to the unlock area. Thus, you can format the USB drive normally in Disk Management. Format write protected USB drive via CMD.

Will formatting a USB completely loses all of its data? Interesting question right? Many of your answers will be yes. But interestingly it won't. In this world of technology, nothing becomes impossible. Even after completely formatting all the files from an exFAT or FAT32 USB flash drive we can completely recover it or even we can repair the damaged data.

Here we explain it in such a way that each one of you can format USB drive without losing data.

Part 1: What Does Format Flash Drive Mean

When we buy a new USB drive, we all make sure that the complete space available in the flash drive is empty. So what happens when we start adding files to the same? We know space starts to get occupied by the files.

But what happens if it is filled and we want to use it again in a fresh manner. There we use the technique called formatting which means we completely erase all the data and files inside the flash drive. So let us see how this works:

When we add data to a USB flash drive it creates a filing system that organizes the data while allowing you to store the most files possible. This virtual filing cupboard organizes your files in a way that makes your USB flash drive perform at its best.

Part 2: Will Formatting Flash Drive Erase Data

The answer to this question is a simple yes. Let us have a quick look at how it happens. Here we talked about organizing files. Files are allocated by certain systems that determine how and where your files are digitally stored. There are mainly 4 types of file systems for storage devices: FAT, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS.

NTFS uses less fragmentation and therefore manages space more effectively. It also excels at transferring files larger than 4GB. However, this system is not always optimal for USB flash drives unless you need to transfer extra-large files.

FAT and FAT32 are supported by nearly every operating system, use less memory, and work faster. The file system exFAT combines the best of both NTFS and FAT for flash drives by reading and writing larger files at a faster speed.

Formatting is not complex either. If you have your flash drive and computer system, you already have all the tools you need.

Step 1: Right-click on your flash drive under My Computer and select Format.

Step 2: Choose from the drop-down menu for the File System to change it to its desired format. The default is generally FAT 32.

Step 3: Uncheck Quick Format if needed.

Step 4: Then, click Start and click OK to bypass the deletion warning.

Part 3: Is It Possible To Format USB Flash Drive Without Losing Data?

Yes, it is possible to format the removable disk without losing data. Let us see how this can be done.

Step 1: Backup data first before formatting

Step 2: Format USB flash drive

These steps don't need many explanations. Before doing the process of formatting you should create a backup of all the files and data of your drive. This can be done by any backup methods of your choice. Simply you can connect it to a computer and copy all the files to it and then do formatting drive.

Part 4: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting

If you didn't make a backup before formatting or you find some files lost after formatting, are you worried about losing your data? No more worries because Recoverit Data Recovery is going to help you.

Recoverit Data Recovery - The Best File Recovery Software

• Ability to recover all files like photos, videos, documents, etc.
• Can retrieve data from all data loss scenarios.
• Ability to restore data from all storage devices (internal and external) and crashed windows system.
• Video repair tool that can repair corrupted videos under different scenarios.

How to Recover Lost Data From Your Storage Device Using Recoverit

To recover files, first, you have to launch Recoverit on your computer. To make Recoverit Data Recovery run on a Windows computer, you have to double click the 'Wondershare Recoverit' icon on the Desktop. If it is not available on the Desktop, you can enter 'Recoverit' in the search box on your Windows computer. And then click on the App or Choose to 'Open' it.

Step 1: Connect the external device

Before getting Recoverit started, you need to connect the external device to your computer. Make sure that it can be recognized or detected.

Newest visual boy advance. Step 2: Select the external device

To recover lost or deleted files from the removable storage media, please select the device as the target location. And then hit on the 'Start' button. Even though the partition on the device has got lost, you can still use Recoverit to bring the lost data back.

Step 3: Scan the external device

An all-around scan will be launched on the external storage media. Wait a few minutes to finish the scanning. During the process, you can locate the targeted files, as well as pause or stop it.

Docker container space limit. Step 4: Preview and recover files

Once the scanning ends, you can preview the files from the scanning result. To get the files back, click 'Recover' and save them into another safe location.

Conclusion

When you have lost files, the primary thing you would like to see is whether or not you've got a backup on your computer or other storage media. Just attend the backup and restore all of your files. Regularly creating a backup is extremely important and useful, it can assist you to save longer to recover files from USB drive when data got lost, and otherwise you should get the Recoverit USB Data Recovery software to recover your data back.

USB Topic

Recover USB Drive

Format USB Drive

Fix/Repair USB Drive

Know USB Drive

My USB drive said it is not recognized and needs to be formatted, which I don't want to perform as there are many important photos and videos inside. I had the problem when I accidently forgot to safely remove hardware. What can I do to fix the problem of USB needs to be formatted error?

Many users of USB drive have encountered such a situation: when connect USB drive to computer, it says that: 'You need to format the disk in drive R: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?' Or your computer just pops out an error and says can't recognize your driver, or 'Please insert a disk into disk'. Don't choose Format disk if you have important files in the USB drive without backup. In this tutorial, we are going to introduce several methods to fix USB drive not formatted error.

Possible Causes of USB Drive Not Formatted Error

There is usually no sign before the error occurs, which makes it hard to take measures in advance. However, the following factors may remind you of the possible causes which shall be avoided in the future: Does epic games have a phone number.

• Hardware (pen drive in this case) not safely removed
• Interrupted or mis-performed formatting on the device
• Physical damage on the pen drive
• Virus attack or infection
• …

The list could go on and the error might disappear after you format the pen driver, but what about your files like your photos, videos, music and anything in your disk drive? Format it will certainly empty your USB drive!

Part 1. Fix 'You Need to Format the Disk before You Can Use it' without Formatting

Formatting the disk is the last thing we'd like to do. Before that, there are a few solutions we could try to fix the error and save the files.

Solution 1. Scan and Fix Possible Errors with CHKDSK

CHKDSK is a common command that computer masters would try to fix errors in hard drives and removable disks. By applying CHKDSK with Command Prompt, the computer operating system will check for and fix the errors it finds on your USB drive. If the errors are fixed successfully, you will be able to access the files stored in the USB drive again.

Windows Unable To Format Usb

Steps to apply CHKDSK:

• Step 1. Click Start button on your PC, type CMD on your keyboard, then you shall see the matched result.
• Step 2. Right-click on Command Prompt, then choose Run as administrator.
• Step 3. In Command Prompt, type chkdsk H: /f /r /x and hit Enter. (Replace H with the drive letter of your USB drive)
• Step 4. Once the scanning and fixing is finished, try to access your USB drive.

Solution 2. Change Drive Letter of USB Drive 'Needs to be Formatted'

In some cases, your computer doesn't recognize a USB drive because it has a drive letter conflicted with another disk. To fix the issue, we need to change the drive letter of USB drive.

Steps to change drive letter in Windows 10:

• Step 1. Right-click on Start button on your desktop, then click on Disk Management.
• Step 2. Connect USB drive to computer. Click Cancel if USB not formatting error appears.
• Step 3. In Disk Management, select the partition of the USB drive, then check if it is assigned with a unique drive letter. If not, keep reading the next step.
• Step 4. Right-click on the partition of the USB drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths…
• Step 5. On the new screen, click Change…, then assign a unique letter to the USB drive and apply the changes.

Part 2. How to Recover Files from USB Drive Not Formatted Error

Why You Need A File Recovery?

Most of the people have the concept in their minds that once format the USB driver, the files in your driver will permanently disappear. Actually, it is not. Let me explain the theory about how the driver works when it gets a command about deleting or formatting.

When deleting your files, the system will not actually erase the files, it just adds a sign on the files that the files need to be deleted. Files will only be deleted when new files are written in the same place; Comes to formatting, there is a catalog in the driver which is used to find your files or anything you put in the USB driver. When you format the USB driver, the system just adds a 'deleted sign' on all of the files or just erase the catalog. You will be unable to find your files without the 'catalog', but you still can recover almost everything in your USB driver if you stop writing anything to it.

USB Drive Not Formatted Recovery

How to recover files from USB drive with not format error? Download a file recovery software and do stop using the USB driver before recovery. Jihosoft File Recovery is an effective and convenient software to recover files like documents, archives, photos, music, etc. It is very easy-to-use, which can recover data from USB driver as well as many other storage devices.

Download and install the USB drive recovery software on your Windows or Mac computer, then connect your USB drive to computer and follow the steps to recover data from USB needs to be formatted error:

Step 1. Run Jihosoft File Recovery and Choose Recover File

My Usb Is Not Formatting

Run the program from your desktop, then click Recover File from the three available options (Recover File/Create Image/Resume Recovery).

Step 2. Scan USB Drive for Lost Files

Now you should see the SD card in the drive list detected by the program, then click 'Scan Now' to scan for lost files.

Tip: Advance Scan is an option for you to specify file types to recover.

Step 3. Preview and Recover Files from USB Drive

When the scanning is finished, all recoverable files will be listed by file type. You can preview the found files and select the ones you'd like to recover. Finally click 'Recover' to save files to your local computer.

Flash Drive Needs Formatting Error

Bottom Line

In this tutorial, we have learnt how to fix USB drive not formatted error. Hopefully, the solutions in Part 1 work for you and you have access to the USB drive and files now. In case they don't work and you have to format the USB drive, don't forget to apply USB drive data recovery with the software introduced in Part 2.

Unable To Format Usb Disk