How to Format Flash Drive Using CMD

Updated to Troubleshooting Tips by Robert on Mar 27, 2023 | Approved by Jennifer Allen

Almost every tech lover knows about USB flash drives. We use USB flash drives every day for various purposes that include professional and personal use. You can use a USB flash drive to transfer files between computers, OTG supported smartphones, create a bootable device for Windows setup, etc. and more. Sometimes people face problems while formatting a flash drive so they start to panic before getting a solution. If you have also faced the same problem, then you need to format flash drive using CMD. After reading this article, you will learn how to format flash drive using CMD and how to restore flash drive using CMD if you face any kind of problem. There can be various reasons that may cause your USB flash drive not to format in the normal way. But with the help of this article, you will get the step by step guideline on how to do it and how to do USB recovery using CMD under Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server.

Part 1: How to Format Flash Drive Using CMD

The most basic and effective way to format a flash drive is by using CMD. There are a lot of people who don’t know how to format flash drive using CMD. It’s really easy if you can follow the blow guideline.

1. Please connect the flash drive to a computer and open command prompt window (CMD) from the RUN box. Press "Windows + R" to open the RUN window, type in "cmd" and press "Enter". This will open the command prompt window.

2. Now you need to type in "diskpart" in the CMD window and press "Enter" button. Then, you need to type in "list disk" and press the "Enter" button. Then you will get a list of drives from your computer. You need to be sure which disk is your flash drive from here.

3. Suppose that your flash drive is Disk 2, so you need to type in "select disk 2" and press the "Enter" button. Next, you need to type in "clean" and wait for some time till your flash drive is formatted.

4. Then you need to type in "create partition primary" and then press the "Enter" button. Finally, when the partition is created, you need to type in "format fs=ntfs" and again press the "Enter" button. You can change the command "ntfs" to your desired file system format such as fat32, exfat, etc. if you want to.

5. Then you can just type in "assign" to assign a drive letter to the flash drive.

You need to understand that, after you format the flash drive using CMD, all data will be gone. If you want to perform flash drive recovery using CMD, you will fail. You have to try good quality software to do it. So putting your trust on iBeesoft Data Recovery tool is the best option.

Part 2: How to Recover Formatted Files Flash Drive

If you are asking the same question like a lot of people that – how to recover flash drive using command prompt? Then you need to stop thinking about it. Your best option to recover flash drive data is by using iBeesoft format recovery solution. It has a 100% successful and effective data recovery process. This tool can recover deleted, lost or formatted data from flash drive in a few clicks. You will face no difficulty while using this software because it’s really easy to use and it has a very easy recovery process.

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There is no need to say how to restore flash drive using CMD because it’s not possible. Here is how you can unformat flash drive by using iBeesoft Data Recovery tool.

Step 1: First you need to download and install iBeesoft data recovery tool on your PC. You need to connect your flash drive to the computer by using a USB cable.

Step 2: Next you will find a list of drives on your screen that are available in your computer. You can select your flash drive and click on "Scan" to start the scanning process.

Step 3: When the software finishes scanning, you will find all the lost/deleted files from your flash drive displayed on your screen. You can easily preview the ones that you need to recover, choose the file category from the left side, choose the files and click on "Recover".

Keep patience and wait till the whole recovery process is complete. After it’s finished, all the files from the flash drive will be recovered to any specified folder of your computer.

This article is the best guideline for formatting a flash drive using CMD. You can easily follow the step-by-step process and format it. If data is lost during this process, then you can also use iBeesoft data recovery to recover files from formatted USB drive.