Modern flash drives or removable memory cards, as compact, capacious and reliable storage media, are now enjoying unprecedented popularity. However, often enough they have to change the type of file system, since the most common formats for working in some situations can not always be used. In how to change the format of the flash drive with a few simple methods, and try to figure it out. But first, let's find out why this is necessary, and what exactly methods can be used to perform such operations.
Why change the format of removable drives?
The main problem of all removable media and the file systems used for them is that the determination of the full amount of storage medium is not always done correctly. As a result, it can be not only impossible to write files to a flash drive or memory card, which, in theory, should fit on them, but also copy objects that exceed a certain limit (4 GB).
This, as many have probably guessed, applies to the FAT32 format. On the other hand, it is this format, not NTFS, that is used when installing Windows operating systems on computers equipped with a primary BIOS input / output system, rather than UEFI.
The NTFS BIOS file system, including EFI boot records instead of MBR, does not recognize, therefore, it cannot boot if the flash drive is set to the first boot device. In the case of the eighth and tenth modifications installed on computers with UEFI, the situation is the opposite - UEFI does not work with FAT32 and MBR.
In addition, the NTFS format is considered to be faster in many respects, and its use certainly affects the speed of the device itself. In addition, there is another common problem associated with the fact that sometimes removable drives may not be readable due to spontaneous format changes to RAW. At the same time, the information recorded on them is either displayed or not, but access to the device is blocked when performing any operations with files.
Basic format change methods
Thus, each user faces a problem regarding how to change the format of the flash drive. In principle, it is not so difficult to do this, since there are quite a lot of tools for this, including the tools of the Windows systems themselves and third-party software. Among all that can be advised as the simplest methods, the following can be singled out separately:
- standard formatting;
- conversion;
- specialized techniques for access recovery.
How to change the format of the flash drive to FAT32 or any other: standard procedure
Now directly about the applicable procedures. The simplest, but far from the best, solution is to carry out a standard formatting procedure using the appropriate Windows tool, called through RMB on the device in Explorer. How to change the format of the flash drive?
You just need to select the desired type of file system (for example, FAT32) and the type of format used (full or quick clearing of the table of contents). In general, for fidelity, it is better to use full formatting, because during quick cleaning, if there were errors or bad sectors on the flash drive, they will not be fixed.
The same applies to formatting via the command line using the format tool, for which you can set additional attributes by specifying the necessary type of file system.
How to change the format of a flash drive without formatting using Windows?
As you can see, the previous method is quite simple. But what if there is some important information on the drive, but copying it to another location or transferring it to the hard drive is currently not possible? After all, all data during formatting will be destroyed! In this situation, changing the format on a USB flash drive to NTFS (for example) is possible without formatting. To do this, Windows-systems have a special conversion tool, the presence of which ordinary users often do not even realize.
To perform such an operation, you need to call the command console (required on behalf of the administrator), and then set the string convert N: / fs: ntfs to be executed, where N corresponds to the drive letter assigned to it by the system. If in doubt, just look in the "Explorer" or use the diskpart and lis dis (or disk volume) commands on the command line (provided that the drive is connected).
The reverse procedure, when you need to change the flash drive format from NTFS to FAT32, looks a little more complicated. In this case, you must run the sequence convert N: / fs: ntfs / nosecurity / x. In addition, before performing this operation, the media must be checked for errors, and also free up space if the flash drive is filled to capacity. If there are portable registered programs on the carrier, registration will fly off, so take this into account.
Conversion by third-party utilities
Windows tools for many users seem quite abstruse and somewhat uncomfortable. Yes, indeed, if we talk about how to change the format of a flash drive in a simpler and more convenient way, it is better to use third-party utilities. So, for example, the built-in AOMEI Partition Assistant package called Ntfs2Fat32, which allows for conversion in both directions (from NTFS to FAT32 and vice versa), looks pretty good in this regard.
In the running utility, you just need to specify the desired drive and select the direction of the format change.
What to do with RAW format?
Finally, let's see what can be done if the flash drive changed the format to RAW, which is not a file system as such, but is a kind of "raw" structure. No operations are possible with it.
Usually it is recommended to check the media for errors through the command console (chkdsk N: / f, where N is the drive letter), after which the file system will be automatically converted to NTFS. You can also use the device initialization in the disk management section (diskmgmt.msc), and then create a simple volume and at the final stage perform formatting with the choice of the necessary file system.
Sometimes it is recommended to use low-level formatting programs like HDD LLFT, if the use of Windows tools does not work. In the worst case, having determined the device identifiers VID and PID, you can download the original firmware and install it on the media again.
Brief Summary
Summing up, it can be noted that in most cases third-party programs look much simpler than their own means of Windows operating systems. In particular, this applies to changing the format while preserving the data present on the flash drive.
But, if the preservation of information is not a prerequisite, you can use the standard formatting procedure. With the RAW format, despite the apparent “illegibility” of the devices, there should not be any special problems either, and such problems can be eliminated simply enough even by Windows tools, of course, only if the media has no critical damage (neither mechanical nor software).