How to format USB drive and memory stick with NTFS

Posted on April 17, 2008 at 5:00 am

If you have ever tried to format a USB thumb drive or memory stick, you may have noticed that the only options you get are FAT and FAT32 file systems. This is the default behavior in Windows XP. However, with some slight tweaking of settings, you can actually format your removable storage devices in NTFS format, including external hard drives, etc.

Of course, there is a reason why Windows defaults the formatting of removable storage to FAT and FAT32. There are actually a few advantages and disadvantages to formatting a USB drive in NTFS format, so we’ll go through those before actually talking about how to do it.

The advantages of enabling NTFS of removable storage devices are mostly security related. For example, an NTFS file system lets you to add allow and deny permissions on individual files and folders for specific Windows users, something you cannot do in the FAT file system. But that’s not all in terms of security. You can also encrypt files using Windows XP’s built-in encryption.

Other benefits include the ability to compress files and therefore save space on your USB drive. You can also set disk quotas and even create partitions! Formatting USB drives in NTFS has several advantages that would be good if you need to use some of these advanced features, i.e. for your IT department or if you’re just paranoid!

However, there are also a few drawbacks to using NFTS on a USB drive. Firstly, there is a lot more writing to the drive that is required when using NTFS and therefore your access to the device will be slower. Will it make a major difference that would prevent people from using it? Probably not, but it’s something to consider. Also, versions of Windows older than 2000 cannot read NTFS file systems, nor can most Linux systems.

The other major downside is that if you encrypt your files on the USB drive, you will not be able to open them anywhere else. Actually, this can be considered a downside or an upside depending on what you want to do. If you want to secure your USB stick so that only your user account on your one computer can open the files, then encrypting is perfect. If not, then do not encrypt the files.

How to format USB drive with NTFS

First, connect your USB device to your computer. Then right-click on My Computer from the desktop and choose Manage.

Next click on Device Manager and then expand out Disk Drives. You should see your USB drive listed there as “Generic USB 2.0 USB Drive” or something similar.

Now right-click on the USB drive under Disk Drives and choose Properties. Then go to the Policies tab.

Now you will see two options, the “Optimize for quick removal” selected by default. Go ahead and change that by selecting the “Optimize for performance” option. This enables writing caching on the drive and therefore allows you to format it as NTFS! Sweet.

That’s it. Now click OK and then go to My Computer. Right click on the drive in My Computer and choose Format. In the File System drop down you will now see the option for NTFS!

You can now secure your USB flash drive or external USB hard drive in any way you like! Enjoy! Source: PCtipsBox

[tags]format ntfs usb, format usb flash ntfs, format usb stick ntfs, format thumbdrive ntfs[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

61 Responses to “How to format USB drive and memory stick with NTFS”

Mika said on : April 18th, 2008 at 6:31 am

Cool tip. Doesn’t seem to work for me though. I’m using Vista SP1 and Verbatim Store’n'Go 8 GB usb stick. Even after optimizing for performance, format to NTFS always fails Format to exFAT or FAT32 always succeeds, though.

akishore said on : April 18th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Hey Mika,

What error are you getting? Can you write it out so I can try to figure what the problem is.

Mika said on : April 19th, 2008 at 3:45 am

Comment in Vista was a dialog info/warning box saying something like “windows is unable to format the drive”. Unfortunately I cannot now redo the operation for screenshot (I can maybe try later) as I have some important files on the disk (on FAT32, of course). Interestingly I also tried to do the format inside windows xp installer (format drive to ntfs), that failed too. So I guess it’s an issue with the Verbatim flash stick.

Dean said on : April 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 am

Thanks for the tip! I also have the Verbatim Store’n’Go 8 GB usb stick but I am running XP with SP2. I had no problem formatting to NTFS.

Gabriel said on : April 24th, 2008 at 1:33 am

I tried formatting with my drive from fat32 to ntfs, but i receive the reponse “Windows was unable to complete the format”. And i am using windows Xp. What next?

Wolf said on : April 24th, 2008 at 11:30 am

Same error for me I tried above without success.
I am using Vista SP1.

braiden said on : May 18th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

i’ve got a PNY Attache 16gig

it work like a charm
The main reason i use NTFS is it allows single file sizes larger than 2 gig which FAT32 doesn’t .

Galen Cartright said on : May 18th, 2008 at 10:59 pm

I tried the same thing as you layed out.
I get the same message except now the DataStick Pro 4 GB
that I am using has deleted the fat 32 format and will not complete NTFS formating. All it say is that windows cannot complete formatting.

Andi said on : May 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am

When i finished my download such as games and application to my usb alcor 2gb, after completed the icons shows corrupt file (can’t execute). my usb format using fat32. What kind of format better, pls tell……

ALEX DICK said on : June 11th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Tambien le podemos Cambiar el formato a nuestra memoria usb en el simbolo del sistema con el comando convert y dejar tus archivos intactos sin necesidad de formatear:

Para convertir una partición FAT en NTFS, siga estos pasos.
1. Haga clic en Inicio, en Programas y, a continuación, en Símbolo del sistema.

En Windows XP, haga clic en Inicio y, a continuación, en Ejecutar.
2. En el símbolo de sistema, escriba CONVERT [letra_unidad]: /FS:NTFS .
3. Convert.exe intentará convertir la partición en NTFS.

Tatoosh said on : June 16th, 2008 at 12:52 am

I tried your steps for Win XP and a USB connected hard drive. No joy. Win98 knows it is the drive is there, I get the little ding dong connect sound, it shows up in the device manager. I even populated info via device manager. But when I go to My Computer, no hard drive. Can’t format what I can’t see.

I tried the enclosure that holds the hard drive with a second older formatted hard drive and it worked like a charm. So it isn’t the interface hardware. It is the new 160 gig Seagate that I bought for a backup system.

I thought I’d format in NTFS for security sake, but at this point, I’d take it either system.

Tatoosh said on : June 16th, 2008 at 12:53 am

Oops! Make that Win XP knows the drive is there … I dunno why I got Win98 on the brain. Sorry.

CARLOS said on : June 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am

No he podido realizar el formato de la usb he seguido los pasos de la guia pero ha sido imposible con ntfs no se da formato

Steve said on : June 30th, 2008 at 8:08 am

“Also, versions of Windows older than 2000 cannot read NTFS file systems, nor can most Linux systems.”

This is true for the Win9x era of operating systems, but if you look at the majority of recent Linux distributions within the last few years, the bulk majority of Linux systems do read NTFS filesystems.

NTFS read & write support within Linux has been around for quite a while now (OpenSuse, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Debian, Slackware..this list goes on and on). This is also true of USB thumbdrive / mass storage support.

This was an informative article, but would you please consider revising your information regarding Linux NTFS support? IMHO, your statement above is bit misleading.

superxaba said on : July 10th, 2008 at 6:19 am

Thank you master!

Carl said on : July 15th, 2008 at 4:50 am

Worked a treat, but did have to unplug, then re plug in the drive.
Thanks

Rick said on : July 20th, 2008 at 3:48 am

i have a WD 120GB external hard-drive and would like to format it to NTFS but i have files saved in it..will these files be erased if i format it?

itwontwork said on : August 15th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

I’m having the same problem as tatoosh. nothing in ‘my computer’, but when i populate the fields in device manager – properties- volume, it knows that the hard drive has a total capacity of 238GB. Brand new drive – why can’t i access it to format it?

problem... said on : August 18th, 2008 at 8:08 am

hey, i have an 8gb emtec thumb drive and i formatted it the other day. it formatted it to fat32. but now it says there is 2gb of data remaining (only 200mb of my files) and the rest is used, most likely from the formatting. can anyone help me out plz.
thnks

WhiskeyCobra said on : September 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

For Tatoosh and itwontwork:

I had the same problem about a month ago with a brand new drive. I was even able to format it (using third party soft) but it didn’t showed up on My PC (although it did on the BIOS and the Device manager).
Ultimately, I figured out that Windows XP wasn’t assigning a drive letter. Don’t ask me why. So I used Hard Disk Manager (buy it or get it somewhere) to assign a letter (D:) and that was the end of it.

grommett said on : September 15th, 2008 at 8:24 am

i found that after making the change in device manger i was only shown fat and fat32 as options in disk manager for formatting the usb-stick. i exited computer manager, then went to windows explorer and was shown fat32 and ntfs as options to format same usb-stick. it then formatted ok as ntfs.
hope this helps some.

Omar said on : September 28th, 2008 at 8:06 am

lo que pasa es que mi flash son dos unidades y la que quiero formatear no aparece una dice cd drive kingston U3 y la otra solo disk removable pero desde el administrador no me aparece que hago

Yelostang said on : October 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Thank you very much, been trying to figure this out for weeks. Worked perfect on my 16gb USB drive using Windows XP SP3.

Solved said on : October 14th, 2008 at 6:39 am

I wanted to format to NTFS since FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, hindering large iso files from being copied.
Changing ‘policies’ to Optimized for Performance did not help on a XP-SP3 and Sony 8.1 GB USB.
So I mounted it on Ubuntu Linux, ran GParted and removed the bloody partition gave it my own label and now I can format it anyway I want.

Eric said on : October 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

As a Network Admin, I carry a lot of data on my 32Gb Corsair USB Thumb Drive. Most of which is Corporation Sensitive Data, which needed to be encrypted. I knew there was a way to format it in NTFS, but couldn’t remember how. Thanks for the tip.

rubenpjr40 said on : October 24th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

Many wrote that they couldn’t format their thumb drives to ntfs following your suggestions but no one gave an alternative method. What do you do when you can’t format the drive to ntfs after following your instructions?

evil flying monkey of death said on : October 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am

I’m sure everyone’s mileage varies, but I managed to format a usb stick as NTFS ages ago without changing any settings in Windows (XP) – I just right-clicked the drive, selected ‘format’, and it was an option… I just tried on another XP PC, and although the format dialog didn’t give me an NTFS option, using the command line allowed it, which seems a little bizarre! The main reason I tried it was to get on-the-fly compression on a 128MB drive, and large files on an 8GB drive. I did a quick search just now to make sure I hadn’t missed any potential drawbacks (like increased wear on the drive or something) and came across this article.

Regarding Linux, not only can most distributions now reliably read/write NTFS partitions, you can actually make an NTFS filesystem on a device (i.e. format it) from Linux in the same manner as any other supported filesystem. In fact, it must be theoretically possible to use Linux to make an NTFS-formatted file or even a floppy-disk, though I’ve no idea what Windows would make of it…!

You can, of course, also format your USB-stick in EXT2 or 3, and then access it from Windows with one of the 3rd party drivers out there. If you mostly used Linux, then EXT2 or 3 would prove a lot quicker and a little more robust in general usage – OSs always read their ‘native’ formats most quickly and reliably. You’d have to be careful not to run into permissions issues when copying files between different computers, though.

l3utterfish said on : October 30th, 2008 at 11:44 am

also get the error message.. any workaround?

John Galt said on : November 12th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

I formatted my USB drive using Kpart in Knoppix (a linux distro) It allows you to select NTFS directly. It will also resize a partition.

The Problem I had is trying to add multiple partitions. I made the USB bootable and installed Knoppix on it. Then, I shrunk the partition leaving most of the drive unused. I then created another partition in the remaining space and formatted it FAT32. It works fine on Linux, but XP doesn’t see the second partition. Would it work better if I formatted NTFS rather than FAT32?

Joe said on : November 13th, 2008 at 5:15 am

Hi I have a 16GB Memory USB Stick.
When I copy files onto it & then try to read then read them….it reads in Asian….not English.
I have tried many times & have done a reformat & then it still does the same.
The USB IS IN fat32 FORMAT & WON’T ALLOW ME TO CHANGE IT TO ANOTHER FORMAT. WHY?????

Yazan said on : November 15th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

Hey there!
That was extremely helpful! I nearly gone mad on how would I change the FAT to some other type. Thanks, seriously.
Really appreciated.

David said on : November 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm

I have a 8 gb memory card and its only wanting to format a 4gb memory card can you suggest something? Other than that one problem i found this site amazing. I have never formated a thing before and this was step by step (great)

Lampish said on : November 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am

Thank yoy!

Works 100%

Dina said on : November 28th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Thank you!!! Worked like a charm.

Thomas said on : December 7th, 2008 at 8:25 am

Hi Cool tip

But my USB stick performance (Kingston datatraveler 8Gig) is much slower when I switched to NTFS. So I switched back to FAT32.

Darren Powell said on : December 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

Are there any other solutions to formatting Flash Drives to NTFS? I’ve tried everything … the ‘policies’ / ‘optimise for performance’ cache thingo … yes, the option to format to NTFS is there but I get the ‘windows was unable to complete the format’. I’ve tried the HP USB Storage Format Tool V2.0.6 and tried NTFS in there … but I get ‘RED X – Failed to Format the Device’ … what’s the point of having 16GB of Flash Storage and I can’t copy files larger than a couple of gig … any other suggestions appreciated … is there a ‘force your USB drive to accept NTFS’ utility out there anywhere?

Cheers,

Dman

john holland said on : December 16th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

Thanks works fine,
Greetings from holland

W.H. said on : December 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

Just curious, for the Format options: (1) Quick Format, and (2) Enable Compression, should I check on these two checkboxes? What’s the pros and cons for these two options? Thanks!

Pheidias Bourlas said on : January 11th, 2009 at 8:09 am

Why are you bothering with FORMAT? No need to FORMAT. Just open a DOS (Command Prompt) window, give (e.g. if your USB is volume F: and has label “my_volume”):

CONVERT F: my_volume /FS:NTFS

and that’s it!
Simple, quick, safe and always working!

High-Voltage said on : January 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

The main reason to format a USB-stick in NTFS is because of the file size. In FAT32 files are limited to 4G. An ISO DVD-rip mostley is a little larger so you can’t get it on stick. Nowadays USB sticks are about 8G and more so it could be usefull to format them in NTFS.

Bug user said on : January 20th, 2009 at 9:18 am

Heres a nice XP bug for you:

Make sure optomize for quick-removal is on. It wont let you format to ntfs? oh ok this is how it’s done.

1. open device manager
2. Go to disk management
3. Select the “optomized for quick removal” partition
4. Right click and select format – you now have an NTFS option even with quick removal on.

djinn said on : February 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am

thanks! no probs whatsoever. im using an 8gb PQI Traveling Disk i221 on WinXP Pro Sp3

Michael Dolby said on : February 21st, 2009 at 12:50 pm

I am unable to format my 8GB USB device in NTFS.
Have tried everything what has been suggested here – nothing worked.

Please don’t say stuff like: it’s easy, or it always works because it doesn’t for everyone.

Have tried EVERYTHING … on my Vista desktop as well as on my XP laptop – no joy.

tbc

Nat said on : March 14th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Have followed all the advice, done everything possible, Just like Michael and no bloody luck! Help!

Robot said on : March 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

I’m using xp pro sp2 and I’ve tried all the steps listed but still can’t format my new 2gig Toshiba flash.

The usual msg “Windows was unable to complete the format” is all I get from windows explorer but using command prompt with the following parameter where E is my flash drive:

FORMAT E: /FS:NTFS /X
I get the following result at the end

THE SECOND NTFS BOOT SECTOR IS UNWRITEABLE. Format failed.

Has anyone got suggestion for this case?

racquelanne said on : March 23rd, 2009 at 3:58 am

i cant format my flash drive even though i use ntfs.when i do it a message that says “windows was unable to complete the format”.

Paul said on : March 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm

Hi,
I’m Unable to format my 16GB Kingston USB stick, It has worked fine for weeks but suddenly stopped after I deleted all the data and is now asking me to format the drive which I’m unable to I’ve tried changing to NTFS but I still get the windows was unable to format message, please help I’m going mad!

SpeedyDay said on : April 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am

I have a Kingston 64GB which I bought.. and have had problems since I received it. I have tried to format it in either fat32 or ntfs with no luck. Can any, please tell me what other means can I use to format. I have tried : cmd
format /fs:fat32 e: NO GOOD
and
changing through disk management – no good..

any suggestions???

Michael Dolby said on : April 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 pm

Hi Nat, Robot, SpeedyDay and everyone else who isn’t able to format their USB device.

Going to Start / typing in “CMD” / right clicking and selecting “run as administrator”, typing:

format e: /q /fs:ntfs

(e = drive letter of my USB device)

… still resulting in “Unable to format”.
Having discussed this subject in a computer forum, I have come to the conclusion that the fault is on my USB device.

Having applied:

chkdsk e: /f

(e = drive letter of my USB device)

… doesn’t find anything wrong though.
If it’s really faulty or just incompatible – I don’t know.
But I have given up.

A pitty really, because I would have loved to try out this:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1381323

MentalNotes said on : April 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

NTFS support under Ubuntu works well for me and has done so for a while now.

@John Galt: Windows doesn’t support more than one partition on a USB drive. Very annoying.

Rensking said on : April 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am

First Formatt the USB-Device FAT32 in disk manager(in computer management), Right click on the USB device –> Format –> Make sure the file system is FAT32 than it says someting like FORCE the USB device to Formatt click on Yes than try the method above again:), this worked for me.

Arshad Hussain said on : July 4th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Dear Sir,

Could you please let me know, how can I partition my memory stick in a Windows XP system?

dave said on : July 18th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

I am running windows XP media centre edition. Reformatted Kingston 16 Gb stick memory to NTFS and it worked just fine.
Thanks.

Wayne Kay said on : September 21st, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Worked the first time. Thank you soooo much!

Travis said on : September 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 am

Thanks for the heads-up… but for some reason mine ONLY gives me the option for FAT32…???

Mark said on : October 12th, 2009 at 8:18 am

Hi…This is a very interesting site. I was reading the other posts here about some problems people were having trying to format their drives and adding partitions,etc.

I am certainly not an expert by any means,but i like to read up on misc. things and I read something somewhere that might give others an idea on what the problem might be.

1.Problem With Formatting Drive:

I seem to have read something somewhere (sorry, i can’t remember where it was, so can’t verify accuracy), but it said that you can only format to NTFS once. You CANNOT reformat back to FAT or FAT32 once you have gone to NTFS. I don’t know why, or if this is accurate, but if it is, it might explain some problems with trying to reformat.

2. Adding Multiple Partitions:

I also read somewhere(again, I can’t remember where it was),something about if you want to add multiple partitions, that you need to make one of the partitions a Primary partition. I believe the system may get confused and not know which part of the drive or partition to go to if you don’t do this.

Again, I admit I am not an expert here at all,just relaying some information I read somewhere. I hope this helps and good luck!

Nitin chandna said on : November 7th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Thanks a ton it …works…USB stick is now NTFS.

sarah said on : November 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am

please help ive just inserted my memory stick and its saying I need to format it, but if i do i will lose all my data! I’ve got windows XP and am desperate .This memory stick worked perfectly well on sunday on this computer!!!!

Asher said on : November 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Worked perfectly for me on a Kingston 8 gig usb stick. I’m running Windows XP Pro. Thanks a lot! Great tip!

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