How to format USB flash drive with Disk Management Once you complete the steps, the flash drive will be ready to store documents, pictures, videos, and other files on the removable drive. As a result, this process can take a long time, depending on the size of the drive. If you do not check the option, a full format operation will be performed, and it will do a scan for bad sectors and writes zeros in all sectors deleting the data. Quick note: The 'Quick format' option only deletes the file system table and the root folder, but the data may still be recoverable. Under the 'Format options' section, select the Quick format option.
In the 'Allocation unit size' drop-down menu, use the default selection.
However, if you think about using the device on a Linux machine, FAT32 is the best option, even though you will be limited to 4GB file sizes. Quick tip: If you plan to use the removable storage on Windows 10 as well as on macOS systems, you may want to select the exFAT option for compatibility. Use the 'File system' drop-down menu and select the NTFS option. Under the 'Devices and drives' section, right-click the flash drive and select the Format option. To format a USB flash drive using File Explorer on Windows 10, use these steps: How to format USB flash drive with File Explorer
