Formatting your flash drive will delete all of the existing data and provide with a clean drive to store your files on. You can also format a flash drive to change the file storage system to make the drive compatible with other devices and operating systems. Method One of Two: Windows 1 Connect the USB flash drive to your computer. Plug it into one of the USB port slots. Plug it directly into your computer and not into a hub to increase the speed of the format and file transfer. 2 Wait for your computer to detect the flash drive. You should see a pop-up bubble in the task bar at the bottom-right of your screen notifying you once your flash drive has been installed successfully and is ready for use. 3 Open Computer/My Computer/This PC. This window displays all of your connected drives. You can access it from the Start menu, or by pressing the Windows key + E. In Windows 8.1, click the Start button (or press the Windows key), type this pc and press Enter. 4 Right-click on the flash drive that you have just connected to your computer. It should appear in the list titled "Devices with Removable Storage" as a removable disk with the drive letter that appears latest in the alphabet. 5 Click on "Format" from the pop-up menu. This will bring up the Format window with the window title indicating which drive you are about to format. Leave the "Capacity" as is. Your computer automatically detects the capacity of your flash drive and fills it in this location. Tick the box next to "Quick Format" if you want to quickly format the drive. You will still have access to all of the free space after formatting, but the original information will not be securely deleted, meaning it could possibly be retrieved.[1] Keep the allocation size as the default allocation size. 6 Choose the file system that you want your flash drive formatted in. Here are some attributes that you should keep in mind when making this selection: FAT is the most basic system for storing files. This system can be slow at times, but it reduces compatibility issues because of its simplicity. Not many systems and devices use FAT by default anymore. FAT32 maximizes the disk space within your drive. This system is ideal if you want to read and write to the drive on both Windows and Mac OS X systems. This format does not support files larger than 4 GB and drives larger than 32 GB. exFAT allows you to store files larger than 4 GB and can be read and written in Windows and OS X 10.6.5 and later. You may have difficulty getting it to work in older systems and devices. NTFS is a fast system that allows you to access your files quickly. NTFS is most suitable for drives that need to be accessed for operating heavy software. Windows can read and write on NTFS drives, but OS X can only read NTFS, not write. 7 Start the formatting process. Press Start at the bottom of the Format window after you have finalized your selections. Confirm your action by pressing OK in the pop-up window. All the data on your USB flash drive will be deleted, and the drive will be formatted according to your specifications.***prbxselfbetwork***
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