Unable to format drive to NTFS

Question

I'm not sure what I did with my 16GB USB stick but now I won't be able to format it to NTFS anymore.

Tried to quick and full format it and I got this:

C:\Users\Home>format g: /q /fs:ntfs
Insert new disk for drive G:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is NTFS.
QuickFormatting 15327M
Volume label (32 characters, ENTER for none)?
Creating file system structures.
The second NTFS boot sector is unwriteable.
The first NTFS boot sector is unwriteable.
All NTFS boot sectors are unwriteable.  Cannot continue.
Format failed.

C:\Users\Home>format g: /fs:ntfs
Insert new disk for drive G:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is NTFS.
Verifying 15327M
9506 bad sectors were encountered during the format.  These sectors
cannot be guaranteed to have been cleaned.
Volume label (32 characters, ENTER for none)?
Creating file system structures.
The second NTFS boot sector is unwriteable.
The first NTFS boot sector is unwriteable.
All NTFS boot sectors are unwriteable.  Cannot continue.
Format failed.

I don't have any data on this USB stick, so can anybody help me to fix this please?

Answer 1

You have deleted the partition table of your USB during that process and now to proceed the conversion to NTFS you first need a partition table to format to NTFS. You can download EaseUS Partition Master directly from http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/. EaseUS offers many very similar data recovery tools often with overlapping features. There may be alternatives you can use, but for this particular task Partition Master does the job. Here's a tutorial on how to recover using partition recovery wizard: Tutorial Link.

If it recovers the partition but fails to format to NTFS recover the partition again and then this time to convert to NTFS use the steps given below.

1. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port.
2. Click Start, type devmgmt.msc in the Search textbox and press Enter.
3. Find Disk Drives and expand it.
4. Find the USB flash drive you want to format, and double-click it. It opens the Properties dialog box.
5. Click Policies tab.
6. By default, the Optimize for quick removal option selected, switch it to Optimize for performance and then press OK.
7. Now open Computer. Right click on the USB Flash Drive and select Format. The Format dialog box now appears.
8. Select NTFS in the File System field.
9. Press Start and wait while the process will be completed.
10. Now your USB Flash Drive is formatted with NTFS format.

Answer 2

I had this exact same problem trying to convert a FAT32 USB stick to NTFS so I could create a system image in Windows 10. After telling me the format failed I tried to format again. The command prompt reported the drive format as RAW. I again typed format F: /FS:NTFS and this time it worked. I didn't need any external program to create a partition. Bottom line: you can't go directly from FAT32 to NTFS but you can get to NTFS if you first change it to RAW.

Answer 3

Go to Disk management ---> Select your external hard disk (RAW, Healthy) ---> right click and select Delete Volume ==> It will give Unallocated...

Then, again right click and select New Volume ---> Next, next, next till finish.

It will format your external hard disk.

Answer 4

I know this is like two years old however, when I have this problem with my USB drives not being able to format them, I just have to use another computer to format them with.

The USB somehow is a smart cookie and will not let none of my USB ports read it or do anything with it. Try using another computer to format the USB drive from.