by Sometimes it is not possible to format a drive using the Windows built in format dialog. This can happen if the file system is severly damaged or a copy or delete job has been canceled unproperly.
Solution: Format the drive using CMD
WARNING: When formatting a drive, all files on this drive will be irrevocable deleted!
First start cmd.exe (Start >> Run >> cmd)
Now type in the format command and the drive letter of the drive you want to format. Use the parameter “fs” to specify the file system type of the formatted drive.
For example:
C:\Windows\system32> format X:\ fs NTFSOr for example with FAT32:
C:\Windows\system32> format Y:\ fs FAT32NTFS should be used for larger volumes like hard drives. NTFS is necessary if you want to store larger files.
FAT32 is recommended for smaller USB drives as on the one hand the file systems overhead is smaller, but on the other hand the size of a single file is limited to 4 gigabyte.
Formatting your drive may take – depending on the size of the drive – a few minutes (smaller USB drives) up to a few hours (large hard disk drives with a few terabyte).
