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How to Format and Fix Corrupted USB Flash Drives?

Simply right click on your pendrive or usb flash drive in windows explorer and choose format it.

When formatting the flash drive, there is an option called “File System“. Now choose “FAT“. Remember this is not FAT32. After that just click on format and wait.

After that you can continue using your flash drive like normal.

If you encountered any problem, please do share with us.

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27 Responses to “How to Format and Fix Corrupted USB Flash Drives?”


  1. Yasir says:

    my flash first of all showed in raw format showing 0 bytes. wen i double click on it it says format it but wen i format it doesn’t show any thing. when i right click and press open it says inser dik or invalid disk. before that it showed I/O errrors wen i tried to copy something from it. ?

  2. admin says:

    Did you do a full format on the flash drive using file system “FAT”? Not the FAT32. Otherwise they may be bad sector occur in the flash drive due to improper way of unplug from your computer. You may try scandisk on your flash drive after that. Hope this will fix it.

  3. ryan says:

    Dude this is no help im 12 years old and i dont know half the stuff your talking about. i have a really important powerpoint due in 2 days and my flash drive is corrupt what the heck do i do?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

  4. admin says:

    try using PC Optimizer Pro, otherwise try formatting the flash drive a couple of times

  5. jay says:

    Yasir on May 8th, 2008 5:56 pm

    my flash first of all showed in raw format showing 0 bytes. wen i double click on it it says format it but wen i format it doesn’t show any thing. when i right click and press open it says inser dik or invalid disk. before that it showed I/O errrors wen i tried to copy something from it. ?

    JUST A FOLLOW UP:
    how do i scandisk my usb when the computer doesn’t recognize the contents of the flash drive? i had the same experience as YASIR.

    HELPPPP!

  6. admin says:

    I guess this is a hardware issue. Did you drop your flash drive? Did you try putting in another usb port? Do it recognize on another computer? There is many possibilities for not able to recognize your flash drive. Maybe your USB driver in windows is corrupted. If all this is not the causes then there is high chances that your flash drive is damaged and cannot be repaired.

  7. steven says:

    I know u got many things to do.
    But thing is with my USB flash drive, wen i open the drive it says “please insert disk into dive (E:)”.

    It does not open and on its properties it says Type:Removable Disk
    File System: Unknown

    Wat do i do, it does not format also

    Plizz reply or email me
    Thanxx!!!!

  8. admin says:

    the USB contact is not good already. the copper plate in your usb drive is coming out. i guess its a very old pen drive.

  9. Wikus says:

    When I want to Format my USB Flash drive it goes to the end and then it says “Windows couldnt complete format”. How do I fix this, please, i need it urgently, please email me.

  10. Drew says:

    Also does not work for me, same result as others. When I click format, nothing happens. Maybe these instructions are not for the same thing. I have a corrupt usb flash drive reading ‘0 bytes’.

  11. abiola says:

    pls, help!!! Each time i tried formatting my LG FLASH (1GB).i receive ”window was unable to complete the format” OR device media is protected.

    how do i remove WRITE PROTECTION from the drive.
    I need your help. i still need my flash drive.

    thanks

  12. Rod says:

    I have a Retail Plus 32 G Flash drive stick and when I try to delete certain files it says, “Cannot remove folder: The directory is not empty” with 3 files inside with 0 bytes. Also, when I try to format it, it says I’m using the drive and cannot format it until I close usage. Restarting won’t help. Is it corrupt beyond repair?

  13. konfrombleach says:

    what if the only thing it has is fat32 do i just use that then?

  14. angelcrespo says:

    dude…i’ve been try to fix my USB drive in many way on the internet.but neno of them can help me.
    the problem of my USB is when i try to open it or format it.a message come out and write “please insert a disk into removable disk (f)”.and when i try to format it.it write there is no disk in drive f,insert a disk, and then try again.what should i do…????reply me pls

  15. Apurba says:

    How can I Solution pen drive fat32 write protect problem.

  16. admin says:

    You can use Perfect Optimizer to repair the errors in Windows Registry

  17. xUFx says:

    Bro ive got the kingston 64Gig usb, and i was tryin formating it but suddenly light went and now my computer reads it the capicity but if i double click it says *the disk drive is not formated, format it!
    and when i go to the format pop up theres only capicity coming thats it all the other things are blank no such FAT and FAT32 thingi apearing, and when i simply formt it says disk drive can not be formatted :S

    Please help me out im in a big mess :( :S

    Waiting, Thanks!

  18. Master says:

    Well i see some people had similar issues as i did with my usb 8g drive, i shall say my drive was not usable “in windows” went into my linux program and plugged in my drive i not only could see it but was given full access to it so i deleted all info and made new windows partition “fat32″ which is what my other 2 are! and i plugged back into windows and not only could i see it but i could now format it if i wanted. For those of you having problems deleting files on the drive try going into folder options in control panel and make sure to show hidden files and folders, hope this helps!

  19. Bilal says:

    Dear All,

    you cant access you data within the usb. only way is recover you stuff with some recovery siftware like power data recovery pro and then make a new partition for your usb as;

    1- right click on ‘My Computer’
    2- go to ‘Manage’
    3- go to ‘Disk Management’

    and make a new partition. this will enable you to format and use your USB as normal.

  20. Biotoxic says:

    Hi, just fixed my 8g flash USB, in Device manager showed as RAW, nothing else could fix it, had a ”Windows Was Unable To Complete The Format” error
    Good old cmd helped me.
    open/run command prompt(cmd) type:
    format ”YourUSBDriveLetterHere”: fs/ntfs
    in my case looked like this:
    FORMAT J: /FS:NTFS
    and it worked, dont know, maybe it works as FAT or FAT32 as well. There was no data on my USB, if you have, you can use some data recovery program like Recuva to get those files back.

    —-TAGS—-

    usb, RAW, how to fix usb drive, USB pen flash, cant format raw flash drive, raw file system, Windows Was Unable To Complete The Format, format error,

    Hope this works :)

  21. daveo76 says:

    Biotoxic: I got a 2GB microSD card. It is in RAW format. I tried followring your instructions but I get a message “The volume does not contain a recognized file system”. I learnt afterwards that windows doesn’t recognise RAW format. I think the best option is to install linux and see if that works for me.

  22. Rishab says:

    I have a 4GB inext pendrive. When i open it “the drive G. is not formatted. Do you want to formatt it now” & when i click yes the toolbar appears and while formatting it shows that windows cant complete formatting .plz help me.

  23. admin says:

    try format it using other operating system such as linux or mac

  24. james says:

    Bilal says:
    January 6, 2010 at 1:28 am
    Dear All,

    you cant access you data within the usb. only way is recover you stuff with some recovery siftware like power data recovery pro and then make a new partition for your usb as;

    1- right click on ‘My Computer’
    2- go to ‘Manage’
    3- go to ‘Disk Management’

    and make a new partition. this will enable you to format and use your USB as normal.

    Thank you your explanation helped with my problem.

  25. Sarah says:

    I just used the below fix and managed to format my son’s 4gb t flash:)
    Thanks.

    Hi, just fixed my 8g flash USB, in Device manager showed as RAW, nothing else could fix it, had a ”Windows Was Unable To Complete The Format” error
    Good old cmd helped me.
    open/run command prompt(cmd) type:
    format ”YourUSBDriveLetterHere”: fs/ntfs
    in my case looked like this:
    FORMAT J: /FS:NTFS
    and it worked, dont know, maybe it works as FAT or FAT32 as well. There was no data on my USB, if you have, you can use some data recovery program like Recuva to get those files back.

  26. bugsy says:

    having trouble with a corrupted lg um8 4gb (very small sized usb, can be attatched to one’s phone).
    tried formatting it using default settings, FAT and it only gave me the option of 250Mb for the size of the usb, which is quite ridiculously wrong, so tried going along with it but couldnt use it, im guessing because it couldnt read it’s size properly,so yeah. it doesnt seem to have worked.
    its not the quite a ‘normal’ usb, so i was wondering if i should be using some specific program to format it, or if i should be doing something completely different.
    any help would be much appreciated
    bugsy

  27. JOSEPH MARCELO says:

    hey look, this is the END OF YOUR FLASH DRIVE
    FlASh drive has a life span too (google it)

    if you do the DOS type and reformmated,
    “the is to big, FAT16…..etc”



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