Have you ever tried formatting a USB Pen drive in NTFS Format? But must not have seen any option for this by default in XP. It allows you to only format your USB Pen Drive in FAT or FAT32. But its quiet easy to format it in NTFS.
NTFS allows you encrypting your data which is a feature that is inbuilt in Windows XP and above. It also lets you to add allow and deny permissions on individual files and folders for specific Windows users, something you can’t think of using FAT file systems.
But on the rear side, NTFS file system won’t get detected in most LINUX systems.
However using NTFS file system also increases your performance and reliability.
So here it is How To Format Your USB Pen Drive In NTFS File System:
Plug in your USB device to any free USB port of you computer.
01. Now click on Start Menu button:
And you will see My Computer icon there. Right Click on it and click on Manage:
02. Once in Computer Management, click on Device Manager and a list will pop up in right hand side window:
03. Now click on Disk Drives, select your USB Pen Drive, Right Click on it and select Properties:
04. This will take you to the properties of your pen drive. Once there, click on Policies Tab. Followed by clicking on Optimize for performance and then finally click on OK button:
05. Now click on My Computer icon on your desktop:
After opening My Computer, Right Click on your USB Pen Drive and select Format:
06. Click on File system drop down menu and you will see 3 options now. Select NTFS and click on Start button to convert it to NTFS File system:
All Done!
Now you USB Pen Drive is in NTFS file format, you can either compress the data in it or can encrypt the data.
If you have any problem or questions then feel free to ask me.
30 Responses to Format A USB Pen Drive With NTFS File System
BUSTLER February 2, 2009
Awesome post mate! I think you must write one more post for telling how to encrypt and secure data in pen drive.
Ashish
Bariski February 2, 2009
Thanks for the appreciation :) Will surely write a post regarding that ;)
Amit February 3, 2009
appreciated……thx for sharing the knowledge….
Bariski February 3, 2009
Its my pleasure buddy :)
Anonymous February 5, 2009
very good…lalu..
Bariski February 5, 2009
lol :P thanks :D
Anonymous February 19, 2009
this doesnt allways work as it will come back saying that the format cant be completed
Bariski February 19, 2009
Well buddy, I never had such problem. May be you firstly format your pen drive with Fat32 and get it scanned with antivirus and then try reformatting.
Hope this helps :)
Anonymous March 2, 2009
Perfect…ntfs
Thanks
Jenney MaC March 6, 2009
Thanks For Sharing Such an excellent tip.
Regards
Jenney MaC
Bariski March 6, 2009
Its my pleasure friend :)
Tutorials Room March 9, 2009
Good Tutorial! It was chosen for the home page of http://www.tutorialsroom.com
Waiting for your next tutorial :)
Bariski March 9, 2009
Woot! Thanks buddy for adding my tutorial to your homepage here:
Tutorials Room
I am thankful :D
Jeff March 30, 2009
Great post. I’m a thumb drive addict with about 25+ of those handy devices. They are great for about everything, but I seem to just store photos on them.
Bariski March 30, 2009
Thanks Jeff, glad you liked it ;)
Anonymous May 15, 2009
i have formatted to NTFS to my pen drive, it had problem in detect in some desktop and laptops but detect well in my laptop then formatted in FAT but problem remain same
Bariski May 16, 2009
What problem are you facing buddy, can you please be detailed.
Anonymous June 2, 2009
Hi all,need your help here…?
i have 4gb kingston pendrive..and i set my pendrive drive name to ‘myname’.i already used my pendrive 1.4gb.and got a lots important files..when i plug in the pendrive,it will automatic install driver ‘kingston datatraveler 2.0 usb device’.my problem is,when i plug out the pendrive and plug in back,it install driver ‘usb disk 30x usb device’ and my pendrive name change from ‘myname’ to ‘removable disk’.and when i rightclick to properties,my pendrive change to,used space 0bytes,free space 0bytes,file system unknown.i try to scandisk my pendrive,and it cant do it,when i click ok at scandisk,it suddenly close..i try also to check with avg antivirus,it shows ‘cannot open;not checked’.
can anyone help my problem?other than format the drive.please….really need your help….
Anonymous June 5, 2009
omg thank you so so much for sharing this. u've made my day! :D
Bariski June 14, 2009
@Anonymous please try and scan your pen drive with eset nod32 antivirus or kaspersky antivirus.
Jon June 18, 2009
Hey this actually really cool. I have some large over 4gb torrents that would benefit from this.
Simran June 19, 2009
nice post :)
Anonymous July 4, 2009
I have a drive I have been unable to format as NTFS since I have had it. I have tried the XP method, tried Vista and also W7 to no avail. It just says 'unable to complete format', or something to those words. I have scanned with NOD and all the boxes tick, no files.
Do you have any suggestions for me please?
Thanks
Oneill
Bariski July 4, 2009
As far as my experience says, it is damaged physically so it wont be usable anymore though I can't be sure.
Anonymous July 5, 2009
But how can that be when the drive is usable as FAT and will store 16GB with limits on the file size?
Bariski July 5, 2009
I doubt if I can tell you without seeing it. Sorry buddy.
Anonymous July 12, 2009
THNX A TON…
Jane Reminder July 14, 2009
Problem fixed. I was having trouble transfering some files over for back-up… well some files… and I tried this handy trick and wallah – it works now. I got my usb drive about a month ago and it hasn’t worked properly until now…
Thank you
rajeev December 23, 2011
when i format my pendrive “it shows window cannot format this drive.quit any disk utilities or program that are using this drive and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive”. pls help me
khaja January 30, 2012
its not working Man ,, i am irritating with my pen drive,, any other solution