Fix Windows was Unable to Complete the Format Error

Windows was unable to complete the format error

"Today, While working on my excel sheets Windows asked me to format my USB flash drive so when I connected it to the computer and got an error message 'Windows was unable to complete the format'  I even tried to reformat it to FAT32 but no luck. Even I had a problem with my daily used micro SD card. I simply can't format it. I  always receive an error 'Windows was unable to complete the format', what should I do?" However, I found a fix, so How can I fix this problem?" let's find out below.

The Ultimate fix

The USB drive is the most portable medium to store more data. Nowadays there are 128GB of storage in a USB drive, in which you can store a lot of data. This is very similar to inbuilt hard disk. To Format, USB flash drive, pen drive, a hard drive, SSD, and Micro SD card is a doable task and it’s not that difficult to most of us.

But when your time is not right and things aren't going your way, you might come across an error like 'Windows was unable to complete the format' or 'the format did not complete successfully'. There are many reasons behind it like the culprit can be a storage device damage, bad sectors, disk write protection, or virus, etc. After all technological plus points, there is a problem with USB drives.

Many times it happens that the USB drive is not formatted on a Windows computer. Since it is an electronic device, it may be that the device has been corrupted or there is some flaw in it. If you have any such problem, then there are some ways to diagnose it. In this post, I'll help you with, step by step, how to fix 'Windows was unable to complete the format' error in just two simple ways.

Fix Windows was unable to complete the format error with Scan the drive for Errors.

As soon as you get 'Windows was unable to complete the format' error on your computer screen, you can first give it a try to fix this problem with the Scanning the drive. The built-in feature of Windows checks for any driver with an error. This attempts to fix other errors by finding other errors with bad sectors of this feature disk. All you need to do is follow these steps.

• Step 1. - Open my computer or this pc


• Step 2. - Right-click on the USB drive and select Properties option


• Step 3. - From the top of the Properties page, click the Tools tab.


• Step 4. - Click on Check now option


• Step 5. - After this, select the option 'Automatically fix file system errors' and 'Scan for an attempt for bad sectors' to start the process, click on the Start button


• Step 6. - Wait for the process to finish


• Step 7. - After the process is over, try to format your device. Still did not work for you? Try this method.

How to Fix Windows was unable to complete the format error using Windows Disk Management method.

1. Step 1. First, you will need to Right-click on "My Computer" icon on your laptop or desktop and click the "Manage" option.


2. Step 2. Now you will find the "Disk management" option simply click on it to open Windows Disk Management.


3. Step 3. All you need to do is Select the USB, flash drive or Micro SD card which you require to format, simply right-click on it and click "Format". If in case you have partitions on the drive, PLEASE delete them all at the start.

Fix Windows was unable to complete the format error with help of Comand Prompt

If the first & second method does not work for you, then command prompt can be used to format the drive.

1. Connect the pen drive to the computer and note that remove all the USB drives connected to the computer at that time


2. Open the Start menu and type CMD


3. Right-click on it and run it with administrative rights


4. After that type 'diskpart' and press enter


5. After that, the list of all the devices connected to the computer will come. Note the number of USB drives


6.  Now type 'select disk disk_ (number)' and press enter


7. After this, press Enter to type 'Clean' and format your device.

Can EaseUS partition tool Fix Windows was unable to complete the format error?

If all the above methods did not work for you, no worries, now simply fix 'Windows was unable to complete the format' error using third-party pc software - EaseUS partition tool. It is a very easy and powerful tool who can fix any issue that might come across while trying to format a USB drive. Follow step by step to get this fixed.

Download - EaseUS partition tool - It's windows 10 supported.

• 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master after installing it, now simply right-click the hard drive partition you wish to format and select "Format" option.


• 2: In the new tab, you will need to set the Partition label, File system as (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, now simply click on "OK".


• 3: Once clicked you will find a warning window, just click "OK" in it to continue.


• 4: Now Click the "Execute Operation" option you will find it at the top-left corner to review the changes, Now simply click "Apply" and start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

Let us know which method worked for you.

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