If Windows won't format your USB drive to the FAT32 file system, remove the write protection or use CMD, PowerShell, or free software to do the same.

In this guide, we'll show you the steps to format a USB flash drive on Windows 11 using File Explorer, Settings app, Disk Management tool, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.

On Windows 10, you can quickly format a USB flash drive to erase content or fix data corruption using File Explorer, Disk Management, PowerShell, and Command Prompt, and here’s how.

How to format your computer’s primary hard drive If you want to erase your computer’s hard drive—the one you’re actively using—things get a little more complicated.