This guide will teach you How to format a USB pen drive using CMD?
We are formatting a USB pen drive using CMD on a Windows 11 powered device. Instruction can effectively be followed for Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.
Why One Would Want To Format USB/Memory Card?
USB and Memory cards are the most effective means of spreading viruses, malware, etc. Cyber security experts oppose the use of USB pen drives and memory cards for data transfer.
Never plug in a memory card or USB pen drive, If there is no security suite installed on your device, especially on Windows 7, Windows 8, and other old Windows versions.
When infected USBs, memory cards, hard disks, and other storage devices are used on other devices, the virus, malware, ransomware, and other things spread like a viral disease.
Infected USB pen drives or memory cards could corrupt or make your copy of Windows unusable. Infected USB pen drives or memory cards damage your data too.
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How To Remove Virus From USB/Memory Card By Formatting Using Command Prompt?
Formatting can be used to get rid of viruses. However, it is not always effective.
It is quite easy to format USB pen drives, memory cards, and other storage devices from File Explorer.
But Once the USB gets infected with viruses, malware, and other things, you can not easily remove them. Windows fail to format USB pen drives, memory cards, and other external storage devices.
Use command prompt to format USB pen drive or memory card. The command prompt can delete USB or memory cards to effectively get rid of viruses.
Before we get started, You need to have administrative privileges to use the command prompt. The important thing is, This procedure requires your full attention. You may wipe off your primary hard disk.
Plug-in USB, and Go to the start menu and type CMD in the search box.
Open CMD from search results.
Type diskpart in the command prompt and hit Enter to execute the command.
Type list disk and press Enter key.
Here you need to be vigilant, As It is showing two disks. The first one is the primary hard drive and the second one is a USB pen drive. We want to format the second one which is the USB pen drive. You now need to type select disk and number of the disk, like this one.
Press Enter key.
The USB pen drive is selected. Type clean and hit Enter to delete the USB pen drive.
You now have to create a primary partition. Type create partition primary and press Enter key.
After partition creation, Type select partition 1 and hit Enter key.
Now type active and hit Enter key.
Now the final step, To format, type format fs=fat32 quick and hit Enter key. This command will format the USB pen drive to fat32. Use format fs=ntfs quick command to format to NTFS file system.
Formatting CMD Commands
To format to Fat32, format fs=fat32 quick
To format to NTFS, format fs=ntfs quick
Formatting is complete, You now need to assign a drive letter. Type assign and hit execute the command.
Type exit to close the command prompt. The USB pen drive is free of viruses and ready to use.
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Final Words
Team Soft Suggester hopes you have managed to format your USB pen drive by following this guide.
Please keep in mind, This tutorial will not help you If there is a hardware problem.
If you could not understand any point, Contact us via the comment section, We will try to help you in the comment.
The comment section can be used for questions, suggestions, and feedback.
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