You may have noticed in the screenshots above that the Lexar USB flash drive format tool can actually be used to format a USB flash drive as a bootable device. I downloaded it, installed it as administrator and ran the tool with high hopes (as administrator), even though the downloaded executable comes with a strange, smiley-like icon that doesn’t really inspire confidence, to say the least.Īfter that, my USB stick was ready to use again, no more 'cannot format usb drive messages'. When I started entering 'cannot format usb drive' search phrases with the USB flash drive model in it, I found a little Lexar tool that was described to be a solution when you have a faulty USB thumb drive.

Ultimately I came across this solution as I started searching for problems with USB flash sticks with the particular brand and model that I was using, a Lexar Media JD FireFly (Lexar JumpDrive FireFly) with 8 GB capacity. Ok, it’s not *my* solution as I didn’t invent it, but it is what worked for me. The Cannot Format USB Drive Message And My Solution Today, however, all is well and I have my 8 GB USB flash drive back in operational mode. I guess some computer problems are tougher to solve than others and I spent more time on this one than is good for a person’s mental peace. At that point I decided that, when I would finally find a solution and get my USB stick working again, I would write the solution in an article and publish it online, so others can maybe avoid the frustration and don’t have to waste as much time as I did when their Windows throws the “Cannot format USB drive” message. So, I figured if I needed the best part of the afternoon to find success, there had to be other poor souls who were struggling to see results as well. The 'cannot format usb drive' message seems to bother a lot of people. I’ve seen people suggesting to use the command-line “sfc /scannow” system file checker, I’ve read long, elaborated forum threads about raw filesystems on USB flash drives, and I’ve witnessed people being instructed to use the command line utility 'diskpart' to wipe and clean their USB drive. I can’t tell how many internet forum posts I’ve combed through, reading stories of individuals with similar problems where fellow forum members were trying to help out and offer good advice. Another symptom was that in the Windows Disk Management tool, the drive partition would come up with a filesystem “RAW”. All I got after clicking the format button was a Windows error informing me that “Windows was unable to complete the format”.

How to format usb drive on windows 10