8 ways to fix USB error that does not display capacity without formatting

A USB that cannot be formatted is not a common situation, but when this happens, users wonder how to solve it. If you are experiencing a situation where the error message 'Windows was unable to complete the format' appears on the screen, please follow the following article, TipsMake will guide you in 8 ways to fix the USB error that does not display capacity and cannot be formatted.

Content

1. 1. Flash Drive to another file format
2. 2. Use Command Prompt to fix the error of not being able to format the USB
3. 3. Use Disk Management to fix when USB cannot format ntfs
4. 4. Format the USB with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
5. 5. Use the AOMEI Partition Assistant tool to format the USB Flash Drive
6. 6. Remove the Write Protection feature on the drive when the USB cannot be formatted to ntfs
7. 7. Scan the drive for errors that cannot format the USB
8. 8. Scan for malware that causes USB not showing capacity error and cannot be formatted

1. Flash Drive to another file format

The first way to handle the situation of not being able to format USB to ntfs is to format your USB Flash Drive to another file format by following these steps:

Step 1: Plug the USB drive into your computer to connect to the device. After the successful connection message appears, right-click on the connected USB drive and select Format .

Step 2: Currently the drive is in FAT 32 format by default , you can change it to NTFS format or another format in File System.

Step 3: Click to uncheck the option in the Quick Format section , then click Start to let the system begin the USB format process.

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>> See more: What is USB? Structure and function of USB you need to know.

2. Use Command Prompt to fix the error of not being able to format the USB

To be able to handle the situation of not being able to format the USB using Command Prompt, follow these steps:

Step 1: First, you must plug the USB Flash Drive or Pen Drive into the computer to connect to the device.

Step 2: Open MenuStart and enter Command Prompt in the search bar and click Open to open CMD or you can also press the Windows + R key combination and enter cmd and then click OK to open the Command Prompt window on the screen.

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Step 3: After the CMD window opens, enter the command ' diskpart ' to open the drive program.

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Step 4: After Diskpart appears, enter the command ' list disk ' to display the list of drives available on the computer.

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Step 5: After the list of drives appears, you now need to confirm which drive your USB is in the system through capacity.

Step 6: After confirming which drive your USB is, continue to enter the command ' Select Disk # '. Where # is the order of the USB in the list of drives that appear on the screen.

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Step 7: Next, enter the command ' Clean all ' to delete all USB data.

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Note: The Clean all command will delete all data so it will take a long time. If your USB has a capacity of over 32GB, it will take about 30 minutes (depending on the configuration of each device).

Step 8: When the system has finished cleaning the USB, enter the command line ' Create partition primary ' to create the partition.

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Step 9: Finally, enter the Format command to clean the USB again and you're done.

3. Use Disk Management to fix when USB cannot format ntfs

Disk Management is a tool that manages and customizes drives connected to the computer. If you are encountering a situation where the USB does not display capacity and cannot be formatted, the Disk Management tool built into Windows will help you fix the error. You can completely rest assured when using this tool because it is very powerful and safe.

Step 1: Right-click the My Computer or This PC icon on the computer screen to open the options. Then click on Manage. After the new interface appears on the screen, select Disk Management.

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Step 2: Then right-click on the USB drive with the error message Windows was unable to complete the format and select Format so that the system can proceed to fix and repair the USB that cannot be formatted.

Step 3: Then, you continue to choose the format of the USB drive depending on your needs. The system allows you to choose NTFS, FAT32, exFAT at the File System location. 

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After choosing the file format, click to uncheck the Perform a quick format box and finally click Format , the system will automatically fix the error of USB not displaying capacity and cannot be formatted.

4. Format the USB with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Using HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a way to help you handle the situation of not being able to format the USB. How to do it simply with just 2 steps as follows:

Step 1: First you need to download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to your computer by clicking here. After downloading the software to your computer, click Run as Administrator to run the software.

Step 2: Then select the USB drive that is having the error and click Start for the system to format.

5. Use the AOMEI Partition Assistant tool to format the USB Flash Drive

In addition to the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool that TipsMake just introduced above, you can also use another tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant, to fix the problem of not being able to format the USB.

This software has very high applicability, works on many different operating systems such as Windows 10/8.1/7,. so it is quite commonly used.

Step 1: First, download the Aomei Partition Assistant tool to your computer to install the software on your device.

Step 2: After the installation process is complete, launch the program and search for USB drives on your computer. 

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Step 3: Next, right-click on the USB drive that is having the error and select Format Partition.

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Step 4: Then a message will be displayed on the screen, you just need to confirm the information on the USB and click OK and the process of fixing the error of USB not showing capacity and not formatting will automatically proceed.

6. Remove the Write Protection feature on the drive when the USB cannot be formatted to ntfs

To be able to overcome the situation where the USB cannot be formatted and the computer receives the USB but cannot open it, you can do so by removing the write protection feature with the following operations:

Step 1: Plug USB Flash Drive or Pen Drive into the computer.

Step 2: Check if your USB drive name appears or not.

Step 3: Press the Windows + R key combination and enter cmd then click OK to open Command Prompt.

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Step 4: Enter the command fs:FAT32 to Format.

7. Scan the drive for errors that cannot format the USB

The next way that TipsMake wants to introduce to you is to scan the drive for errors:

Step 1: Open This PC and right-click where your USB drive is displayed and select Properties.

Step 2: After a new window appears on the screen, click to switch to the Tools tab and click Check in the Error checking section. 

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Step 3 : Select Repair drive to run the scan on the drive.

8. Scan for malware that causes USB not showing capacity error and cannot be formatted

Another way to handle the problem of not being able to format a USB is to scan to find malware that is affecting the system's operation. If you download too much software to your computer and these software conflict with each other or are infected with viruses, it can interfere with the normal operation of the file system.

To scan and find malware, you can use the free version of Malwarebytes with extremely simple operations.

Above are detailed instructions from TipsMake to help you solve the problem of USB not showing capacity and not being able to format. Hopefully these shares will help you solve the problem quickly and without hindering your user experience and working operations on the device.

Jessica Tanner

Update 01 October 2023