Format usb for windows tool how to#

Your aim is to have only a single block of unallocated space. When asked for your confirmation, press Yes. Right click on the partition and click Delete Volume. The unallocated space cannot be deleted but that’s okay. The idea is to delete any existing partition present on the USB disk. Identify which one it is from the size of the USB disk or from the ‘Removable’ tag. This is very important to select the correct disk. This includes the plugged-in USB, of course.

Start this tool and it will show all the disks present on your computer. Go to the Windows menu and look for the Disk Management tool. Windows only see the EFI partition on the USBĪll in all, what you need to do is to delete all the partition on the USB disk, create a new NTFS or FAT32 partition from the free space you got from deleting the existing partitions. This is why your Windows system only sees the EFI partition of 4 MB and shows the USB size as 4 MB. The other partition(s) is in Linux’s Ext4 filesystem which Windows do not recognize. Do you know why? Because while creating the live Linux USB, the tool creates a 4 MB of EFI partition in FAT 32 filesystem. You see only 4 MB of disk space in Windows. Formatting the live Linux USB created by Rufus or Etcher

Format usb for windows tool how to#

Let me show how to restore the bootable USB to a usable state in both Windows and Linux. You can still format it with a little trick and use it comfortably. Even if you manage to format it, the size of the USB is now shrunk to just 4 MB from the usual 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB. You try to format it and it probably won’t let you do that. You plug it in your Windows system and to your surprise, the disk capacity of the USB is just 4 MB. Now you want to format this USB and use it for regular data transfer or storage.

You used it to install Linux and the purpose of the USB is accomplished. You used Etcher or Rufus tools to create a bootable, live Linux USB in Windows or perhaps in Linux.