Windows was unable to complete the format in Windows 10 Fix

Formatting a disk in Windows is very easy. You can do it from File Explorer very easily. But sometimes this formatting process doesn’t work properly, resulting in an error message on your system ‘Windows was unable to complete the format‘.  Sometimes the corruption in the drive format itself causes this issue on your computer.

 

Fix 1 – Format the driver from CMD

You can format the partition of the drive particularly using a few CMD commands.

1. Type “cmd” in the Search box beside the Windows icon, to open an elevated Command Prompt window.

2. Then right-click on “Command Prompt” which appears on the elevated search result and then click on “Run as administrator“.

 

Cmd Search

 

3. To do this you have to enter diskpart management. Simply copy-paste these two commands one-by-one and hit Enter to execute both of the commands sequentially on your computer.



diskpart
list disk

 

Diskpart

 

4. Now, in the list of the disks, you will have to check the “Disk No” for the faulty drive.

You can simply do this by looking at what is the size of the drive as the size of the pen drive will be much lesser than that of the size of the partition of your HDDs.

( Example-For us,  it is the “Disk 2” as the size of the disk is 28 GB).

 

Disk 2

 

Now, you need to create a new partition in fat32 format.

5. To do so copy-paste and modify these commands in Command Prompt window one-by-one and hit Enter after each of them to format the drive on your computer.

select disk (your disk no.)
list partition


Select Disk 2

 

6. Now, you have to select the partition in the drive. Paste the command, modify the command according to it, and hit Enter.

select partition (your disk no.)
format fs=fat32
exit

 

Select Partition 1 Format

 

The formatting process will take some time. Wait till it shows 100%. Once the drive is formatted, you may close the Command Prompt window.

6. Remove the pen drive from your computer and then insert the pen drive into your computer.

In some cases, you may need to format the pen drive once more. Follow these steps to do so-

1. You have to press the Windows key+E. 

2. Now, in the File Explorer window, on the left-hand side, click on “This PC“.

 

This Pc

 

3. After that, right-click on your pen drive. After that, click on “Format” to start formatting the drive.

 

Format F Drive

 

3. A click on the “Start” and the formatting process will start.

 

Start Format

 

This should have fixed the issue on your computer.

 

Fix 2 – Check for errors and format further

Error check the drive first and then format the drive using the process explained before.

1. Open the File Explorer on your computer.

2. Next, on the left-hand side, go to “This PC“.

3. Here you will see the list of drivers present on your computer.

Simply, right-click on the problematic drive and click on “Properties“.

 

Usb Props

 

4. After that, go straight to the “Tools” tab.

5. In the ‘Error checking’ section you have to click on “Check“.

 

Tools Check

 

6. Next you have to click on the “Scan and repair drive“.

 

Scan Adn Repair

 

7. Once the “Your drive was successfully scanned” message appears on your screen has appeared,  click on “Close” to close the Error Checking window.

 

Close

 

Once the checking process is complete, format the drive following the steps mentioned before.

 

Fix 3 – Run chkdsk and format

If nothing is working out for you, try running a check disk operation from the terminal.

1. Pressing the Windows key+E will open up the File Explorer.



2. Now, you have to click on “This PC“.

3. Note the drive letter of the problematic drive (Example– For us, the drive letter of the SD card is “F:” ).

 



Check The Drive Letter

 

Close File Explorer window.

4.  Type “cmd” in the search box.

5. Then, right-click on “Command Prompt” and choose “Run as administrator“.

 

Cmd Search New

 

Command Prompt with administrative rights will be opened.

6. When the terminal opens up, paste this code, modify it, and hit Enter.

chkdsk /f <drive letter> 

[Replace the <drive letter> with the drive letter you just noticed in the File Explorer.

Example– For us, the command will look like this-

chkdsk /f  F:

]

 

Chkdsk F

 

Once the disk checking process is over, format the drive following the steps mentioned in Fix-1.