Format USB Pen Drive using CMD

When using the Command Prompt,  you have two methods. One is using a simple format command while the other is using Diskpart. We will show both the processes. When using the Diskpart tool, you will need admin privileges. You can also use PowerShell instead of  CMD.

1] Using Format Command

Plug in the USB drive you want to format, and open File Explorer. Identify the exact drive name of the USB drive. Make sure not to make any mistakes here. If you use an incorrect drive letter, you will end up formating another partition and lose all the data.

Make sure no copy process is in progress, and the drive is not open in the explorer.Type CMD in the Run Prompt, and hit enter to open the Command Prompt.Type FORMAT : and hit the Enter key.It will prompt you to enter a new disk for Drive I. Just hit the Enter key again.If you get a prompt saying:

Enter Y, and it will dismount the volume to format it. Its because some process is still accessing it. Unmounting will make sure all the processes accessing the drive will stop.

If you want to format with your choice of options, we suggest you to reading everything about the Format command here. Read: How to delete or format C drive using Command Prompt.

2] Using Diskpart Tool

DISKPART is a powerful tool that you can use to manage all the partitions from the command line. Before running this tool, make sure to remove the USB drive.

Post completion of all the tasks, the USB drive will be formatted, and it will be empty. DISKPART tool works differently compared to the standard format option in Windows. Read next: How to format External Hard Drive or USB drive using Windows PowerShell.