Diskpart is a Windows built-in utility primarily used for managing disks inserted on the computer. Cleaning or formatting a storage device such as a USB, or HDD device is also possible. Users usually format the storage devices using Windows Explorer, sometimes this process can occur with an error, so they try to fix the error by formatting using the Diskpart command. Diskpart is a CMD command and is a very powerful tool to format any storage drive. Sometimes users also face issues with the Diskpart command and face Error in Formatting Flash Drive, there are many types of errors regarding Diskpart. In this article, we will go through all the fixes one by one including Diskpart Error Level. So, Let’s get started.

How to Fix Error in Formatting USB Flash Drive

Before going through the troubleshooting methods, below are the possible causes for Error in Formatting Flash Drive.

• Locked USB
• USB device corrupt
• USB is write protected
• System files are present in the USB
• Virus in the USB drive
• Bad sector in the USB
• Disk Driver is corrupt

Here are the methods to fix Diskpart error level while formatting USB drive.

Method 1: Reconnect Device

If the USB device or Storage drive is not connected properly, then issues with Diskpart may occur. This can be solved by reconnecting the device. Remove the device from your computer and reconnect the device again, make sure the computer is connected as an administrator and check if the issue persists.

Method 2: Verify USB to Fix Internal Error

There is an error utility present in Windows, you can perform this check to see if Windows detect any checks for failure.

1. Press Windows + E keys together to open File Explorer.

2. Now, open This PC and right click on the USB drive and click on Properties.

3. Navigate to the Tools tab and click on Check to check the drive for any possible error.

Also Read: Fix Unknown USB Device in Windows 10

Method 3: Run Malware Scan

Sometimes a virus problem can cause Error in Formatting Flash Drive, so this can be fixed by performing a virus scan. You are advised to scan your computer as instructed in our guide How do I Run a Virus Scan on my Computer?

Method 4: Update Disk Drivers

A corrupt or incorrect disk driver can cause issues with the driver, even if the diskpart tool is used correctly or other methods are used correctly a wrong driver can cause various errors. Read out our guide to Update Drivers on Windows 10 PC to fix Diskpart error level. 

Method 5: Run chkdsk Scan

Sectors are the section on the USB or a disk drive that are the small unit for data storage. Sometimes, files are stored in random sectors causing damaged files. These damaged sectors cannot be read or written, and because of this, the formatting process will be disrupted. Read out our guide to Check disk for error using chkdsk.

Also Read: Fix USB Keeps Disconnecting and Reconnecting

Method 6: Use System Event Viewer

Sometimes users report there is an error called Access denied on disk part. The Access denied error will usually occur because the USB drive is found to be unauthorized or blocked. Follow the below steps to fix the error.

1. To troubleshoot the error, try checking the System Event log, System Event Log will log every issue that is occurring on the computer.

2. Press the Windows key, type eventvwr and click on Run as Administrator, this will open the Windows Event Viewer.

3. Click on Windows Logs present in the left-side pane.

4. Click on the System, now on the right side there will be a huge list of errors double-click on the recent errors which have a red mark.

5. Right-click on the event which is related to your USB and click on Event Properties.

6. Now, you can view the details of the error, with the error details you can easily troubleshoot the error most commonly this issue is caused by not having administrator rights.

7. To fix this, read out our guide to repair system files.

Method 7: Make Sure USB device is not Locked

If you have connected the device correctly, you need to check if the drive is not locked, if it is so then Error in Formatting Flash Drive may occur.

1. Reconnect the USB device and open File Explorer, check if the USB device’s files are accessible through File Explorer.

2. Access the data on the USB device and check if the data are intact and accessible.

3. If it is accessible, then you can proceed to clean the drive using the Diskpart utility, if not then you may encounter an error like the device being currently occupied by another program or file, restart the Windows system and try the Diskpart utility again.

Method 8: Run Diskpart Command

When a storage device such as a USB or an HDD is write-protected, you may encounter an error called The device is write-protected. If an HDD or USB device is write-protected, then you cannot format the device including the contents on the USB. You may need to unlock the USB by decrypting it before using the diskpart utility. Following are the steps to solve Diskpart error level issue.

1. Press the Windows key, type Command Prompt, and click on Run as Administrator.

2. Type Diskpart command and hit Enter key.

3. Now, enter the list disk and hit the Enter key, this command will list all of your disks present on the computer including all removable media.

4. Enter the Select disk X, the X is the disk number, double-check if the drive you have selected is your USB drive.

5. In case, you want to confirm the disk protection, enter the command attribute disk to check if the selected disk is Read-only, the heading Read-only will read yes if Read-only is on.

6. Type the command attribute disk clear read-only and hit the Enter key. After the procedure, The Current Read-only state and Read-only will be set to No.

7. After performing the steps you can try and use the diskpart to see if Error in Formatting Flash Drive is fixed.

Also Read: How to Use Rufus to Create Windows To Go USB Drive

Method 9: Use Windows Installation Disk to Troubleshoot

The Access is denied will occur if the disk contains system files if there are system files present. While Windows is active the removable media cannot be cleaned so you may then need to wipe the files from Windows Installation Disc. This process takes place while booting so the removable media do not get access is denied error. Follow these steps to solve Diskpart Error Level.

Note: The following steps were performed on HP 15s (2020) model.

1. Insert your Windows Installation disc in the drive and boot from the drive.

2. To Boot from the drive, you need to set the boot preference in BIOS/UEFI system when the computer is starting.

3. When the Computer is starting hit Esc key and hit F10 key to access the BIOS/UEFI.

4. Navigate to the Boot options.

5. Under UEFI boot order, there will be hardware boot order, press F5 or F6 key and move the hardware named USB CD/DVD ROM Drive to the top of the list.

6. Finally, navigate to the Exit tab and click on Save Changes and Exit.

7. After this process, your computer will now boot on the Windows installation disk.

8. When booting, click on Repair your computer.

9. Now, click on Troubleshoot.

10. Click Advanced options and finally click on Command Prompt.

11. Now Input the following diskpart command by order and hit Enter key after entering each command.

Diskpart
List Disk
Select Disk(number of the Disk)
Clean all

12. This is one of the solutions for people encountering Error in Formatting Flash Drive.

Note: Please be careful before cleaning any disk, always double-check the disk drive before cleaning as it is easy to clean the Hard disk drive of the PC causing the Windows to not boot.

Method 10: Reinstall USB Host Controller

You can try reinstalling the USB Host Controller device to see if it fix error in formatting Flash Drive issue.

1. Hit the Windows key, type Device Manager and click on Open.

2. Double-click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

3. Now, right-click on Intel Controller (or AMD Controller in the case of AMD processor) and click on Uninstall Device.

4. Restart the device. The driver will be installed automatically by Windows upon restart.

Also Read: How to Change USB Settings on Android 6.0

How to Format a USB using Diskpart

After following the above solution, you would have found how to fix the error, now let us see how to properly perform Diskpart Format USB Stick.

1. Open the Command Prompt from the Windows Search bar.

2. Type diskpart command and hit the Enter key.

3. Type list disk and hit the Enter key, this will display the disks on the computer.

4. Type the command select disk (number of the disk) and press the Enter key to select the disk.

Note: The number of the disk is your disk number, double check and make sure if the disk number is your USB number

5. Type clean and hit Enter key, this will delete all the partitions on the USB and remove all the locks.

6. Now type create partition primary and press the Enter key.

7. Finally, type format fs=fat32 quick command to format into FAT32 or type format fs=ntfs quick command to format into NTFS.

8. To assign a drive letter type assign and hit Enter key.

9. Finally type exit to exit diskpart utility. This is a reliable step to perform Diskpart Format USB Stick.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. How Can I Fix the issue that USB won’t format?

Ans. Switch OFF the USB lock present on the USB, Change the USB drive letter, clean virus and malware from the USB, and run CMD clear the read-only option to fix the issue.

Q2. How I force a USB Format?

Ans. You can force a USB format from two ways i.e. Through File Explorer, open This PC and right click the USB and click Format. Another ways is through Disk Management tool, right-click on USB, and click on Format Volume option.

Q3. Why I Cannot format USB to FAT32?

Ans. The USB might be corrupt or write-protected. The USB drive might be 64 GB or large. Windows does not support formatting drive size of more than 32 GB.

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We hope the above article on How to Fix it When There is an Error in Formatting Flash Drive was helpful to you and you were able to fix Diskpart Error Level problem, let us know in the comment section about which one of the methods worked for you, Thanks