Formatting pendrive through command prompt without losing data

Without flash it is hard to imagine modern life office or the ordinary user. To transfer data from computer to computer, hand in the report or to save something important and unseen - all this is possible thanks to the removable media. All flash drives are shipped from the factory already formatted. As a rule, their file system-FAT32. In today's world it is outdated, as it has several significant disadvantages. Among them are the inability to move the stick files larger than 4 GB, and a limit on the size of partitions on your hard drives.

A Little about file systems and their differences

The Range of Windows since the release uses the FAT file system. Its a more advanced version is FAT32. After it is NTFS introduced in Windows XP.

The differences of these representatives file systems is the limitation on the size of the hosted files and partitions. FAT16 can use up to 2 GB, FAT32 — up to 4 GB for file and 8TB volume. The more modern NTFS can manage files and partitions up to 16 exabytes. However, it has a limit on the path length that must be less than 255 characters.

Apple uses HFS+ for its technology. It also has a limit on the length of the path name or file of 255 characters. It is worth remembering for the automatic creation of documents or to preserve them. The sizes of files and partitions can be up to 8 000 petabytes.

Linux distributions use line file systems ext. The latest version — the ext4 file system implemented so far in 2008.

Interestingly, the Linux system can easily work with file systems FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. But Windows does not even see the ext partition and derived without any additional software.

How to spend formatting pendrive through command prompt

Newer and More modern is considered to be the NTFS file system. It can work effectively with large sections and files. Besides, its speed is much higher than its predecessor. Also reliability in placement of data on the partition and indexing help to take the place of more optimized for performance and volume.

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In order to format pendrive using command prompt from FAT32, to NTFS there are several ways.

Standard tools of the operating system

Operating system families Linux and Windows are equipped with standard utilities, capable to carry out the formatting pendrive through command prompt. First you need to understand the Windows system. It has a utility to format a pendrive using command prompt-diskpart. Since it is a system program and affects important areas of the OS, then you need to run it as administrator.

Run in Windows is it possible by going to the menu “start” then “All programs” - “Standard”. Here you need to right click on the item “Command prompt” and choose “Run as administrator”.

Opens a command prompt window. It is enough to type diskpart and press “Enter”. Now enter further commands will be transmitted via the utility and run it.

To begin the formatting process, you need to type format Z: /FS:NTFS. Here Z is the drive letter of the USB drive. And the key FS and an indication of NTFS utility says that you need to format the disk in NTFS.

The Only disadvantage of this method is that if the flash drive had the files, they will be hopelessly lost.

Formatting pendrive through command prompt without losing data

In fact, to perform this task impossible. You cannot format the drive, not erasing the data. But you can convert from one file system to another. Here also can help the utility diskpart. As it is run from the administrator described above. Next you need to enter the command list volume. It will display a list of all available partitions and disks with their letters and volumes. Following the team — list disk. It will show all physical drives in the system. Disks can be marked with numbers 0, 1, 2, and so on.

Now a command select disk 1 will choose the correct drive. Then convert to ntfs. Then Specified the drive to increaseET NTFS.

Other methods

Prior To this were shown how to format pendrive using command prompt Windows 7. But what if you need to perform this procedure on Ubuntu or Debian? Next will be described a method of formatting the stick using Linux command line.

Actually, in Linux it is called terminalor console. You can open it with Ctrl+Alt+T. Then you need to look at the list of connected devices. This allows you to do the command fdisk-l.

In this case, the flash drive is listed under the name /dev/sdb1. In Linux, for changing partition or disk should unmount them. It is necessary in order to access the data, which can be busy at the moment.

But in order to accurately verify that the drive tontitown, you need to dial a simple command:

Df-h

After pressing Enter the screen will display a list of all devices which are mounted at the moment. If something like /dev/sdb1 is present in him, it means that you will have to disconnect. This is done with the command umount /dev/sdb1.

Now you can format the pendrive using the command line. This has a built-in mkfs command. Her entrance need to pass multiple parameters. First, this is a system file. In this case — ntfs. By the way, this utility can hold formatting pendrive through command prompt to fat32. Next you need to specify the name or label for the drive. And finally — the path to the flash drive. In the end it should be like this:

Mkfs.Imamate ntfs /dev/sdb1.

Once the process is complete will the flash drive with the new NTFS file system.

Third-Party program to format

Some manufacturers of removable drives have their own software for fast and reliable formatting in a convenient graphical interface. There are also programs and from third-party developers. The following is a list of commonly used products:

• HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Probably the most well-known program. The interface is simple and resembles the standard Windows operating system.
• Transcend Autoformat. This utility is primarily used for mobile storage formats-SD, MMC, CF.
• HDD Low Level Format Tool. Utility that produces a low level format. Sometimes helps to revive a flash drive or hard disk. Supports many devices and has broad functionality.
• SD Formatter — very simple and easy program. Mainly used to format flash drives for mobile devices. The interface is simple and clear, and the license to use it free.

Conclusion

Many operating systems there are more elegant ways of formatting without command line. Using the GUI, you can also easily perform this task. Formatting a pendrive using command prompt is mainly for low-level process, when other methods do not help.

There are more complex and multi-step methods of resuscitation flash drives. They use special programs Separately per controller Drive. But these details are beyond the scope of this article.