“Windows was unable to complete the format”
Many users would meet the error: “Windows was unable to complete the format” when
they try to format their USB drive to FAT 32 or NTFS in Windows Explorer. But why
would this happen?

There are many causes that can lead Windows format USB drive failed such as virus
infection, the storage device damage, or there has bad sectors on the USB drive, or
the USB drive is write-protected. Well, how can you format USB drive successfully
under those circumstances?
Ways to format USB drive successfully
You may have a lot of problem about those questions, and you may take a lot of
measures to overcome those bad situations like kill virus, check bad sectors, or release the
write protection, and so on. Actually, there are many easier solutions.
Note: Following operation will wipe your data on USB drive. Please back up important files to safe places like local PC or cloud.
Solution 1: Disk Management format USB drive
When you cannot format USB drive in Windows Explorer, or the USB drive not shows in
My computer or Windows Explorer, you can go to the Windows Disk Management to format
USB drive.
Step 1. Open Windows Disk Management by typing “diskmgmt.msc” and pressing Enter
in the search box.
Step 2. Right-click the USB drive and select Format at the menu.

Step 3. Then, select a file system to format USB drive into FAT 32, or NTFS, or
others. Click OK to start.
However, if the USB drive is shown as unallocated space in Disk Management, here you
need right-click the unallocated space, select “New Simple Volume” to create new
partition for the USB drive. After creating partition on the USB drive,
you will find that it has been formatted and it can be recognized by Windows
Explorer.
Solution 2: Diskpart format USB drive
Mostly, when the computer cannot recognize a USB drive, you can try to use Diskpart
to format USB drive. Diskpart is a built-in tool that manage your hard drives. You
can use it to format disk including internal or external hard drive. Diskpart format
USB drive is much more effective than Windows Explorer. Here we’ll take an example
of how to format USB drive with Diskpart while it is not shown in Windows
Explorer.
1. Open the command prompt by typing “cmd” at the search box, right-click the
program and select Run as Administrator.

2. Then,type “diskpart” and press enter to launch the program.
3. Next, type “list disk” to display all disks on your computer.
4. Type “select disk 2” and press Enter. Here disk 2 is the USB drive.
5. Type “clean” and press Enter.
6. Type “create partition primary”, press Enter.
7. Type “format fs=fat32 quick” or “format fs=ntfs quick” and press Enter
to format USB drive to FAT 32 or NTFS as you want.

Finally, type "exit" to end up this, and you have already finished the task
about Diskpart format USB. Then, you can active the partition and assign drive letter for
the USB drive. For all this, Diskpart is dangerous for people who do not familiar
with Diskpart cause all the operations cannot be revoked once the progress launched.
Thus, if there is one mistake, you may get into a big trouble. Fortunately, there is
another easy way to format USB drive that even a noob can do it alone.
Solution 3: Format USB drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is
a remarkable free software that can manage your hard drive in Windows 7/8/10. You
can use it to create/resize/delete/format/move/merge partitions in a few
simple mouse-clicks in its intuitive interface. Format USB drive could be much
simpler than Windows Disk Management or Diskpart format USB.
Step 1. Plug in your USB drive to your computer. Download the freeware, install and launch it. All
disks on your hard dive will be shown on its concise main interface.
Step 2. Right-click your USB drive, select Format
Partition at the drop-down menu.

Step 3. Here you can select the file system you need, edit the
partition label and the cluster size.

Step 4. Finally, click Apply at the
toolbar to submit the operations.

Even though, AOMEI Partition Assistant still provides you the way to partition hard drive from command
prompt including format USB drive with command prompt. AOMEI Partition
Assistant format USB drive is a good alternative to Diskpart format USB drive.
Besides, you can use it to do many other things for managing your hard drive better.