You may have encountered a time before where a smart TV formatted a USB using an unusual file system, or left a large portion of the device as an untouchable EFI partition. If you’re on Microsoft Windows, the Disk Management utility can come in handy sometimes, however, it’s unable to delete these partitions or reformat. Follow along and we will show you how to reformat your USB device using Windows diskpart.
Warning: Following these steps will result in total loss of all data on the USB drive. Only continue if you’re okay with this.
1 » Open Command Prompt as an Administrator. This can be accomplished by searching for Command Prompt in the Windows menu and choosing “Run as administrator”.
2 » Open the diskpart utility via Command Prompt by entering:
diskpart3 » List the detected disks:
list diskYour drives will start with the number 0 (Disk 0). It should be apparent based on the size of the drives listed which one you’re trying to reformat. Apply this information to the next step.
4 » Select the appropriate disk. Replace disk X with the disk determined in the previous step.
select disk X5 » List the existing partitions:
list partition6 » As long as you’re okay with any possible data loss on the drive, continue by selecting the first listed partition. Replace X with the first one listed in the previous step:
select partition X7 » Delete the partition:
delete partition overrideThe partition number doesn’t need to be specified here, as it was selected in step 5.
8 » Repeat for any remaining partitions:
list partition
select partition Y
delete partition override
9 » Create a new partition:
create partition primary10 » Lastly, format with your desired file system:
format fs=fat32 quick