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How to format a flash drive for NTFS in Windows XP. In what cases is it necessary to format a flash drive? Quick or Full Format

Let's figure out how to format a flash drive to ntfs or fat32

In this article we will look at the following question: how to format a flash drive to the file system we need - ntfs or fat32. The question is very common and not always clear.

And it’s not even safe for your data. When you do formatting you need to know exactly what you are doing and in what order so as not to lose necessary files.

The fact is that during the formatting process (full, not quick), not only is data deleted from the flash drive, but also its file system is partially repaired.

Therefore, by formatting the flash drive, we will not only clean it, but we can also improve its operation if errors and malfunctions begin to occur with it.

We will deal with this issue in this order:

  1. What is formatting?
  2. Why format a flash drive?
  3. Well, in addition, why, when writing to an empty flash drive, does it say that there is no space and why change the file system from fat32 to ntfs?

So what is formatting? Formatting, if you say in simple language This is the process of deleting data and overwriting the file system.

And even shorter it's simple complete removal data from a flash drive.

Why do we need to format the flash drive to ntfs:

  • If the flash drive cannot be read or opened, then formatting can solve this problem.
  • If there are viruses on the flash drive, but the antivirus does not see them, then you can simply format it, thereby removing all the viruses. Just keep in mind that all files from the flash drive will also be deleted.
  • If you need to change the file system of a flash drive, then in the process of preparing for formatting you can change it and the formatted flash drive will have the file system that you specified at the beginning of the process.
  • Flash drive is slow. This happens because file system It accumulates errors over time. In order to get rid of them, you need to carry out a full formatting, read about this below.

What types of formatting are there?

There are two types of formatting:

  1. Low level
  2. High level

Low-level formatting This is basic data markup and is done at the factory.

It is almost impossible to do it outside the plant, despite the fact that sometimes you come across programs that carry out low level formatting. Everything about this type of formatting is because we are not interested in it; it is carried out at manufacturing plants.

And here high level formatting we are more interested. We can easily carry out this formatting at home, just sitting at the computer. It is divided into:

  • Fast
  • Complete

We will learn how quick formatting differs from full formatting by considering their capabilities.

And so with quick formatting:

  1. All data from the flash drive is deleted, but it can be restored; how to recover data from a flash drive, read the note to recover data from a flash drive
  2. Along with deleting all data, viruses are also deleted
  3. Performs very quickly, usually no more than a minute

With full formatting:

  1. All data from the flash drive is permanently deleted; it is extremely difficult to recover; at home it is almost impossible
  2. You can change the file system
  3. More likely all viruses and files are deleted too
  4. Completion time is usually from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours
  5. And, most importantly, with full formatting you can sometimes restore the flash drive to normal operation. For example, if it is not detected or works slowly. But we repeat that only sometimes.

What formatting options are there?

You can format a flash drive either simply in Windows or with special programs. It is clear that in Windows, namely through my computer, it is simpler and easier to format a flash drive.

Special programs are needed if the simplest method presented in this article cannot be used to complete

But it happens that I can’t format or change the file system through my computer. In this situation, you need to use special programs for formatting flash drives.

In this article we will look at how to format a flash drive without special programs. We will do this through “my computer” or windows 7 “computer”.

This is the most important icon on the desktop. Insert the flash drive into usb input computer or laptop and go to “computer” on the desktop.

Here we see we have a flash drive under the letter I:

To format it, you need to right-click on it and select “format” there:

This is very important, because if you accidentally select not a flash drive here, but a hard drive, it will be formatted and you will lose all the data on it.

If, for example, you know that your flash drive has a capacity of 8 gigabytes, then this line should also contain 8, or almost 8. A little less, the main thing is not much more.

Now important parameter, which answers the question of how to format a flash drive in ntfs. Now comes a very important parameter for us - the file system.

If possible, you should always install the NTFS file system

But sometimes it happens that, having put in initial settings NTFS, formatting cannot be completed completely and says “formatting is not completed.”

The reason for this very often is that you set NTFS in the initial settings. But it’s okay, just start over and set the initial settings to FAT32.

Then comes the cluster size, set it there automatically or don’t touch anything at all.

Well, the last important parameter is “formatting methods”.

In our case, in the picture below, there is a checkmark next to “fast”. What fast means is described above.

If we uncheck the box, the formatting will be “full”, which is also described above:

If you put required settings, then click “Start”. When asked to delete all files, click “Ok”:

When formatting is complete, the following window will appear:

You have formatted the flash drive and can already use it.

And the last question - why, when writing to an empty flash drive, does it say that there is no space and why in this situation do you need to change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS?

And so why does it write that there is no space on the flash drive, although it is empty or there is enough space.

The problem is that the flash drive has a FAT32 file system, and it cannot work with files larger than 4 gigabytes.

So it turns out that when you try to write a movie larger than 4 gigabytes to a flash drive, a message appears saying that there is no free space.

To solve this problem, you need to change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS. This is easy to do, as described above.

So we looked at the question of how to format a flash drive.

Formatting is the process of marking up any storage medium. In this case, all information from the drive is deleted.

In what cases is it necessary to format a flash drive?

- Inability to record files larger than 4GB. The fact is that almost everything removable media have a FAT32 file system, which does not allow you to operate with files larger than 4GB. For this, the NTFS file system is used.
- Presence of malware (viruses). If the media is infected or suspected of being infected with a virus, it is advisable to format it, since antivirus programs may not recognize certain malicious code.
- Damage to the media file system. Most often, this problem occurs due to a malfunction of the operating system, improper extraction, and also computer viruses. In this case, formatting will create a new file system.

How to format a flash drive in Windows?

In Windows, there are several ways to format a flash drive. The first method is considered the simplest and is used by most users. It consists of formatting the flash drive via Windows Explorer. To do this, go to “My Computer” and select “Format” in the context menu of the drive (right-click on the flash drive icon).

In the window that opens, you can select the cluster size, file system, volume label and formatting method: quick or full. The difference is that with fast, data is not deleted from the drive, but only the file system header is erased. The remaining data is subsequently overwritten. Full formatting erases all data from the media. The “Start” button starts the formatting process.

Once the process is complete, you will see a message indicating that the procedure is complete. After this, the flash drive is ready for use.

Formatting a flash drive via the command line

To format a flash drive using this method, open a command prompt and enter the following command:
format "Drive Letter:" /fs:"File System" /v:"Volume Label"

This general form commands in which you enter your own data (without quotes), for example:
Format I: /fs:FAT32 /v:Flash

Where I is the drive letter; FAT32 – new file system; Flash is the new media label. This method provides for complete formatting of the media. For quick, you can use the “Q” parameter. The cluster size is set using the "A" parameter.

You can also format a flash drive in the disk management console. To do this, log into the computer management console and open the Disk Management menu.

Then right-click to call context menu disk and select “Format”. Next, a window similar to the window in the first method will appear. After installation required parameters you can start formatting.
In most cases, in order to perform formatting, it is enough standard means Windows. However, if it is impossible to format a flash drive with their help, then it is better to use third-party programs.

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Many people are faced with a situation where, when trying to copy a file of more than four gigabytes in size to a flash drive, an error window appears "The file is too large for the destination file system." The thing is that the file system of such flash drives is FAT32. This can be easily fixed.

FAT and NTFS

The article is intended primarily for novice users, so I left out some points. For example, converting FAT and NTFS requires more action, there is a risk of losing data - that's why I didn't mention it.

Briefly about what it is file system: is a way of organizing information on media ( hard drives, DVD, flash drives, etc.) After all, in addition to recording any information, you also need to organize it. The simplest example way to organize data - files and folders. In fact, everything is more complicated from a technical point of view, but there are specialized articles about this.
IN this moment on hard drives personal computers common file system NTFS, which replaced the outdated FAT32. Flash drives (USB and SDHC, MicroSD, etc.) are most often formatted by manufacturers in FAT32(less often - in FAT16). The differences between FAT versions are described on Wikipedia.

Most full list You will find differences between all file systems, but I will tell you about the distinctive features of FAT32 and NTFS from the point of view of an ordinary user:

  • NTFS supports drives up to 16 exabytes in size, while FAT32 only supports up to 8 terabytes - i.e. NTFS supports disks up to approximately 2,097,152 times larger in size.
  • NTFS supports files up to approximately 16384 gigabytes in size. FAT32 - no more than 4 GB.

It is the limitation of the FAT32 file system that prevents files larger than four gigabytes from being written to flash drives. To change FAT32 to NTFS, you need a flash drive format- create a new data storage structure.

Don't forget to copy important information from a flash drive, because when formatting any storage medium, all data from it is erased. This also applies to flash drives.

Format the flash drive to NTFS

If you have Windows Vista, 7 or 8

Here the procedure for formatting a flash drive in NTFS is extremely easy:
Insert the flash drive into the USB port
Open Start - Computer
Right-click on the flash drive icon - Format:

Select the NTFS file system, click Start, in the next window OK and wait for the flash drive formatting completion window:

Ready! Now you can write files larger than four gigabytes to a flash drive!

If you have Windows XP

This operating system does not know how to format flash drives on its own into the file system we need. You will have to use the program - link (spare). Download and run:

Everything is simple here. The most important thing is to select from the list Device your flash drive. Do not confuse with other disks and flash drives.

  1. NTFS has a number distinctive features. For example, if you remove a flash drive without Safely Removing it, recently copied and modified files will be deleted from it. Therefore, either use Safe Removal (icon near the clock), or disable the need to use Safe Removal: open Control Panel - System and Security - Device Manager, in the window that appears in the section Disk devices find your flash drive, double click on it and select Policy - Quick removal - OK. Then you can remove the flash drive without Safe removal. Actually on Quick removal usually there is a checkbox, but sometimes it jumps to Optimal performance, so you need to check.
  2. If you cannot copy files to a flash drive formatted in NTFS (a window appears with the text " No access" or " Insufficient rights"), just format it again. This is due to the features of access rights that are present in NTFS, but were not present in FAT.
  3. I do not recommend formatting SDHC, MicroSD and other memory cards to NTFS for one simple reason - most devices (phones, cameras, video cameras, etc.) do not know how to work with this file system. So if you use a phone flash drive to transfer files, you will have to put up with FAT.
  4. At using NTFS on a flash drive, memory cells wear out more actively, so The service life of the flash drive will be reduced. How much - it all depends on the model of the flash drive and how you use it. I advise you not to write hundreds of small files to a flash drive with NTFS. You can also disable logging - the recipe is given First of all, use NTFS when storage is required large files.
  5. Place a check mark on the item Use compression V HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool I really don’t recommend it - data compression in NTFS really allows you to save some disk space, but it loads the processor quite heavily and slows down reading/writing data from a flash drive (checked on own experience). Gaining a couple of tens of megabytes is not worth it. In addition, point 4 begins to manifest itself even more actively - wear and tear of memory cells.

Bottom line

So, main conclusion: To store files larger than four gigabytes on a flash drive, you will have to format it in NTFS. There is nothing complicated here, any novice user can handle it. If for some reason you don’t like NTFS on flash drives (for example, you are afraid for the health of the flash drive due to faster wear), you can format it in exFAT. This file system has its advantages, for example, flash drives formatted in exFAT can be opened on a computer running MacOS. It has one drawback - it is not supported outdated versions Windows - XP without SP2 or SP3 and Vista without SP1 or SP2. The flash drive is formatted in exFAT in the same way as in NTFS, using Windows Vista/7/8.

First, let's look at the question - why format flash drives?

Surprisingly main reason for formatting are not viruses on flash drive, and the inability to write a file to a flash drive larger than 4 gigabytes. Some users have encountered this problem, like an 8 GB flash drive write to flash drive movie, ISO image, folder and other files - it doesn’t work. Many manufacturers produce flash drives in the format FAT32, and fat32 does not support transfer of large files. Maximum size the file that can be written to a fat32 flash drive should not exceed 4 gigabytes (). This is why flash drives are formatted fat32 V ntfs.

Formatting allows you to get rid of viruses on a flash drive. If you checked the flash drive for viruses using and they didn’t find anything, but you have a suspicion that there is a virus on the flash drive- It's better to format it.

Another reason for formatting is slow work flash drives. After removal unnecessary files remain empty seats(clusters). As a result, the flash drive began to work slower - the flash drive format will help speed up its operation.

Also formatting must be done before creating bootable flash drive. If you want to install Windows OS from it yourself, write to USB Live CD, system recovery programs - then you first need to format the flash drive.

These are, in principle, all the basic answers to the question of why format a flash drive.

Formatting Types

There are two types of formatting - quick and full. What are the differences between them? With quick formatting, only the file allocation table and MFT are cleared, i.e. the data that was on the flash drive can be restored. When fully formatted, it happens complete destruction data - overwriting with zeros.
Full formatting usually used in case of malfunctions - for example, errors in writing and reading a flash drive.

Formatting Methods

You can format flash drives using the operating system itself or using formatting programs, for example or.

Formatting using OS Windows

Important: before formatting, copy the necessary files from the flash drive to HDD or another drive, so that you don’t have to restore files using !!!

The simplest and affordable way formatting. Click right key mouse on the flash drive icon and select Format.

Formatting this way from fat V ntfs impossible, and you also cannot change the cluster size and flash drive capacity. You can only assign a volume label (title, name) - what the flash drive will be called on your or another computer.

.

If you check the Quick formatting box, the table of contents will be cleared (the difference between full and quick formatting is given above).

I don’t think it’s worth explaining about the “Start” and “Ok” buttons. After formatting you will see this picture

Second formatting method using Windows

You can format the flash drive to command line. To do this, it is enough to know the volume letter (in in this case flash drives). Open CMD and write the following command, for example:

format L: /fs:FAT32 /v:LamerKomp

Where format- this is formatting, L- volume letter (disk, flash drive, etc.) that will be formatted, fs- the file system in which the formatting will be performed (fat or ntfs) and v- this is the label (name) and press ENTER.

You can also write additional options: Q is , A is the cluster size. If you want to know more about them, enter help format at the command line and press enter.
note: all letters are written in the Latin alphabet, case is not important.

The described methods are good for formatting a flash drive from Fat to Fat, from NTFS to Fat, if you need to format a usb flash drive from fat to ntfs- use .

Useful information on flash drives

Formatting a flash drive is software process formation logical structure flash drives with the previous deletion of all data stored on it. A file structure or file system is certain order, a method of organizing information storage on a medium or its section (in the case of hard and solid state drive). It determines the length of the file name, its structure, maximum occupied space, renaming method, etc. Some file systems provide additional service capabilities - distribution of access rights to data, encryption, archiving.

There are two types of formatting: full and quick. In progress quick formatting the file table of the flash drive, which stores paths to files, their names, attributes, etc., is cleared, then a new data structure is formed and a master boot record of the drive is created. After quick formatting, the operating system perceives the media as free of any information. The data itself and its structure are not physically affected in any way. During the process of writing files to a formatted quick method flash drive, the data on it, marked as deleted, is simply overwritten with new bits of information.

Full formatting is the same clearing of the table of contents (file table) with the formation of the data structure of the flash drive, but with the overwriting of each sector of the flash drive with a zero bit. In the process of full formatting logical drive or the drive will be additionally checked for the presence of faulty (bad) sectors on it, into which it is impossible to write information.

Many users wonder why and whether it is necessary to format a flash drive on various forums and blogs, but most of them never receive a clear answer. Let's try to understand the main reasons that require formatting removable flash drives.

Reasons for formatting a flash drive

    Removing viruses

    Flash drives very often become victims of malicious software. software and viruses. Sometimes their number reaches dozens malicious files on one flash drive, which may prevent the user from making changes to the file system of the flash drive. In this case the best solution there will be formatting - it will delete everything malware in a matter of seconds.

    Changing the file system

    OS Windows family are able to work with multiple file systems of data storage devices. The most common of them are NTFS and FAT32, each of which has own advantages and shortcomings. IN Lately Users have increasingly begun to record disk images and movies in ultra-high resolution onto flash drives, occupying up to ten or more GB. But when copying a file that occupies more than 4 GB of flash drive from the file FAT system or FAT32, gives a similar error:

    Why does it occur? In the FAT32 file system, 4 bytes are allocated for writing a file, which equal 32 bits (4 bits multiplied by 8 (bits in 1 byte) and we get 32). Two possible bit states (zero and one) to the power of 32 equal 4 gigabytes: 232 4 GB. The file size cannot exceed this value, because it will not be possible to indicate its size - there are simply not enough addresses for this. As a solution to the problem, the NTFS file system appeared, where this drawback was eliminated.

    There are cases of replacing the NTFS file system with the outdated FAT or FAT32. This happens when the computer has old version OSes from Microsoft. For example, Windows 2000 does not always correctly detect and work normally with the NTFS file system. The same goes for older chipsets. motherboard that do not support the NT file system.

    Quickly clean a flash drive from huge amount files

    Even with the advent of the high-speed data transfer interface on which new flash drives work, USB 3.0, the speed of deleting a significant number of files, for example, photographs, or distributions portable programs, has been going on for quite some time. About devices working through outdated USB interface There is nothing to say about the 2nd generation - the removal process can take many minutes. For quick removal a significant number of files from a flash drive, sometimes it’s easier to copy the necessary data from it and use the quick formatting function to clean the flash drive.

  1. Purchasing a new device

    As a rule, new flash drives do not need formatting - the manufacturer has already determined their file system. To ensure that the device is fully operational, it is recommended to format it using the full format function to check each memory cell of the device for functionality. Even if you fully trust a global brand, it is better not to neglect the opportunity to once again verify the functionality and integrity of the product.

    Creating a bootable USB flash drive

    A very common reason to format a USB drive is to create a bootable USB flash drive. As mentioned above, during formatting the main boot entry Master Boot Record or MBR. It is necessary in order to basic system I/O or BIOS could find the MBR boot device in its first sector. The main characteristic of the master boot record is the presence of a certain signature ( digital code) in its last bytes. The bootloader is needed to detect the active partition, which is the flash drive, and transfer control to the primary instructions contained in the bootloader.

    When errors occur

    Formatting, as already mentioned, is an excellent method for eliminating problems with the structure of a flash drive. During a full format, the flash drive will be checked for the presence of non-working memory cells and, if possible, they will be replaced with backup ones or excluded from the file table. They will simply be marked as broken or non-existent for Windows. This way you can slightly extend the life of the drive and eliminate some problems ( bad sectors, for example), causing freezes, errors, etc.


2. Why format a flash drive to NTFS. What are the advantages over FAT. Flaws.

Before you decide what NTFS has advantages and disadvantages, you need to get to know it better.

NTFS is the latest file system developed for storage devices used in operating rooms. Windows systems, starting with XP. In edition 2000, this file system does not always work stably. It was based on HPFS, which has quotas, logging and access restrictions in its arsenal. Compared to its predecessor, NFTS is slightly inferior in performance.

The size of a partition in NTFS is limited only by the volume hard drive, the limit, of course, exists, but before it is reached the volumes hard drives and, moreover, flash drives should increase by many orders of magnitude. This file system supports all cluster sizes, the standard of which is a 4 KB data block.

The free space of the volume is divided into two parts: about ~12% of it is occupied by the metafile. It will not be possible to write other data to this area. Even when the metafile occupies a small volume, its reservation area will be reduced by 2 times. The remaining space is available to the user for storing his information.

The main MFT metafile is a file table. It is divided into 1 KB areas, each of which stores a record about one of the documents placed in the section, including the metafile itself, oddly enough. The first metafiles are of a service nature and are the key to the functioning of a logical partition or flash drive. They are stored in the middle of the disk/flash drive, which is a guarantee of security and increases the reliability of the data carrier.

MFT stores all information about all files in a partition (their size, location in the form of addresses of clusters or memory cells in the order in which they are accessed, attributes). The table also stores files that occupy tens and hundreds of bytes (up to 1 kB). Any document in NTFS is a data stream, which is very convenient, for example, in the case of adding the artist or author of the document. In the usual way It is not always possible to see this data, but there are many utilities for this. Document sizes are displayed as real, not including “attached” streams. It happens that after deleting a file that occupies several kilobytes, hundreds of megabytes are freed. This is because a stream of freed megabytes in size was attached to it.

File and directory names in NTFS can reach a length of 255 characters in Unicode, and the number of documents stored in one directory cannot exceed 65635, which is equal to 64 K. Directories are a link file containing a list of documents that are stored in it , in compliance with the hierarchy.

NTFS is a reliable and self-sufficient file system that can put itself in order after failures thanks to the use of the so-called transaction method, when the action is performed completely or not at all. To put it simply, the patient is either healthy or not; according to the NTFS interpretation, there cannot be patients. For example, if, when copying a file, it turns out that there is not enough space for it (several files are written in parallel to one volume, otherwise the operating system warns about the lack of free space on the disk) or part of the document falls on a damaged block, such a write is considered not made and the process is interrupted. Also, all transactions that were carried out before turning off the power or pressing “reset” are canceled, which is fraught with unpredictable results: the place is designated as free, and the MFT indexes return to their previous position. Thanks to this, turning off power during high disk activity will not even require startup chkdsk utilities, because no failures in the file system will occur.

File fragmentation in NTFS is one of its main problems that has not been resolved over several decades of its existence. It is as follows: the MFT zone reserves the first 12% of disk space, and when the disk is filled to 85 percent or more, this zone is reduced by 2 times and so on several times. Thus, the drive will have several “terminations”. The result is extreme fragmentation of files written to the area that was reserved for MFT. Also, files are fragmented quite well even with a large amount of free space on the drive. This happens due to the imperfection of the algorithm for detecting free sectors.

Additional features of the NTFS file system:

  • Hard Links feature or hard link is a rarely used option. It allows one file to have several names and be in several directories at the same time (perfectly implemented in Total Commander along with NTFS program Links;
  • Symbolic Links – the ability to create virtual directories. Used to set shorter paths to folders stored in the wilds of your disk;
  • encryption – any type of data can be easily encrypted to avoid getting into confidential information into the wrong hands.

From the above, the main advantages of NTFS over FAT follow:

  • the maximum size of a occupied file is 264 GB versus 232 = 4 GB in FAT;
  • availability of encryption, archiving, user rights, quotas;
  • automatic recovery from errors;
  • actual unlimited partition size;
  • more efficient use free space (fragments of several files can be written to the cluster);
  • quick file search;
  • high reliability;
  • support for long document addresses and long file names.

Disadvantages of the NT file system:

  • reduced operating speed compared to FAT and HPFS;
  • significant data fragmentation, which reduces the efficiency of the drive;
  • the need to carry out regular defragmentation;
  • extremely low speed operation of a drive that is more than 80-85% full.

3. Format the flash drive in Windows 7, 8, 10

The process of creating a new file structure flash drive, that is, its formatting, in the latest editions of Windows happens in a similar way. There are no differences in the process, except for the options for calling some windows.

Before starting formatting, you should close all programs that use the flash drive, otherwise Windows will display an error about the impossibility of completing this process due to the use of the flash drive by some service or program, as in the screenshot.


  1. We connect the drive to the computer.

    We are waiting for autorun to appear and/or scanning of the flash drive for viruses and malicious applications installed antivirus, if this function is activated.

  2. Call up the context menu of the drive and select “Format...”.

  3. In the formatting window that appears, set the following parameters:

    • file system – NTFS;
    • cluster size – standard or 4096 bytes (this is standard);
    • volume label – enter the name of your flash drive or leave the field blank;
    • formatting method - depending on the purposes of formatting, the field can be left blank to completely reset the flash drive and check it for bad sectors, or you can only clear the main file table.

    As for the name of the flash drive (volume label), it is easy to change. Just call up the drive’s context menu and select “Properties”. In the window that appears, in the first tab, look for the name of the flash drive (in our case, WIN7) and change it to the desired one.

    When finished, be sure to click “Apply” and close the window by clicking on the “Ok” button.

  4. The operating system will ask the user for confirmation, notifying that all information on the media will be destroyed. Before confirming, please make sure that the media does not contain important files or they are copied to your hard drive. The procedure for restoring lost documents may take a long time and may not be successful.
  5. We confirm the start of the formation of a new file structure of the flash drive with or without checking its memory chips for defects by clicking on “OK”.

    6. We wait until the operating system completes formatting.

    When the operation is successfully completed, the following window will appear.

    Never turn off the computer or remove the flash drive from the USB port while this process is taking place.

    Close it by clicking on the “Ok” button.

    Our flash drive is formatted as a file NTFS system and ready to go.

Formatting drives can also be done in several alternative ways, but the meaning of the operations will remain the same.

Via the command line


The flash drive is formatted and ready to use.

4. Formatting a flash drive in NTFS under Windows XP

In general, the formatting process removable drives since Windows release XP hasn't changed a bit in over a decade. The only feature of this procedure in the outdated, but still popular XP, is that creating an NTFS file structure in this edition of the operating system is not available by default and we will have to manually activate this function.

    To do this, go to “Device Manager”.

    It can be called by one of the following methods.

    1st method:


    2nd method:


    After calling the window with a list of equipment using one of the methods, switch to next chain actions.

  1. Expand the “Disk devices” item by clicking on the triangle next to the inscription.

  2. In the list of storage media, select our flash drive, focusing on its name, where JetFlash is present, the name of the manufacturer or the volume.

    Call its context menu and select “Properties”.


  3. In the dialog box, move to the third tab called “Volumes”.
  4. Go to the second tab “Politics”.
  5. Move the radio switch to the “Optimal performance” position to enable the caching option Windows files for quick search.

In this case, you must definitely use safe removal the drive when it is disconnected from the computer, because the operating system can work with the flash drive at the moment when the user removes it from the USB connector.


5. Format using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - simple portable utility to create a file structure and boot sectors on flash drives. One of the drawbacks of the program is the inability to specify the sector size of the future file system of the USB device.

Formatting a flash drive in the NTFS file system via HP USB FT is extremely simple.

6. Through the built-in file system conversion utility convert.exe

Windows has another tool for creating the file structure of a removable drive. Her important feature is a function of converting file systems of drives without deleting data from them. That is, using the built-in Windows utilities You can easily convert FAT32 file system to NTFS. Inverse function convert.exe does not.

This is done using the command interpreter.


As a rule, formatting a flash drive in NTFS only makes sense if you are copying huge files to it that exceed 4 GB. That is, using the FAT32 file system on media up to 4 GB is quite logical. In addition to all the advantages listed a little above, this file system also has a number of disadvantages. Among them are:

  • significant file fragmentation, which contributes to accelerated wear of the media;
  • more low performance devices, especially in cases where they are almost completely filled with files, even when compared with its predecessor HPFS and even the outdated FAT.

The failure recovery system in NTFS is also a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows you to eliminate the consequences of errors that have occurred, damaged memory cells or disconnecting the device from the network, but on the other hand, this results in the mandatory removal of the flash drive before disconnecting it, and the likelihood of losing many of the data recorded on the device immediately before it was disconnected.

It is not recommended to use the journaling function on flash drives due to more active wear of its memory cells. How active this process will be depends on the frequency of its use. You should also not use archiving (compression) on removable UBS drives due to the same process of accelerated wear of their memory cells.