Solved Formatting a USB drive

Hello, I bought a cheap 128 Gb USB drive on an auction site but I cannot format it in NTFS. I have tried it on Win7 and Win8 and it begins to format and completes over 90% but then it gives me the message that Windows cannot complete this format. I don't remember how to do it in a Command window. Maybe that would work. Any help would be appreciated.

I went ahead and remembered how to format by a command line and got the same results. Here is a picture of the results.

Is this a hard drive or a flash drive?
USB just refers to the interface.

Ah yes LMiller7. Thanks. My error. It is a flash drive.

I am not saying this is your problem but it needs to be considered:
In recent years there has been a serious problem of "fake" flash drives. These are small drives (sometimes factory rejects) that have been altered to show a much larger capacity than they actually have. This is a particular problem with drives from outlets like eBay with sizes over 32 GB and from sellers in the orient. It has been estimated that the majority of such drives are fake. The packaging of such drives is often very convincing.

See this for more information:
All About Fake Flash Drives 2013 | eBay

I've not yet see a USB Thumb/Flash drive formatted as NTFS, have all come formatted as FAT32. The only downside to FAT32 is the largest single file it will accept is 1 Byte less than 4GB [GigaByte], need NTFS for larger single files.
A couple of references:
What is the maximum file size FAT, FAT32 & NTFS file systems - Microsoft Community
Maximum Size of a FAT-32 Partition | techcosupport.com
What is maximum partition you can partition FAT32
That last page mentions 32GB as the largest partition that WinXP can format although it can use larger.

Hi LMiller7, that could be. I have over 900 successful transactions on eBay and have not been cheated yet but there is always the first time.

Hi Berton, That's useful information. Thanks. I tried to format with FAT32 and here us what I got:

Any ideas about what to try next? I'm going to use this drive for backing up.

Try this Tool

okrobie said:

Hi LMiller7, that could be. I have over 900 successful transactions on eBay and have not been cheated yet but there is always the first time.

Hi Berton, That's useful information. Thanks. I tried to format with FAT32 and here us what I got:
View attachment 64384
Any ideas about what to try next? I'm going to use this drive for backing up.

Click to expand...

Sometimes Windows and DOS have problems with partitions over that 127GB or maybe 132GB. However, Windows can work with larger partitions if formatted by something else like the bootable GPARTED or even a bootable Linux Live CD/DVD. I'm going to hitch a ride on the 'bad drive' vehicle.

By design Windows will not format a FAT 32 drive over 32 GB but it will work with one up to 2 TB (the limit for FAT 32) if it has been formatted by a third party utility. Flash drives are rarely sold formatted as NTFS but they will work if this is done.

Typically a fake drive will format with no issues (at least with FAT 32). Formatting with NTFS will be more troublesome but you there may not be any immediate symptoms. Typically a FAT32 formatted drive will work until the real capacity is reached, after which the symptoms will depend on the details of the drive. Finding the real capacity can only be done with special software.

If a new drive fails to format as NTFS it would seem likely that it is either bad or fake.

A good tip off for fakes is the price. If the price is much lower then 20% below advertised price for new drives it is likely fake. The profit margin is too low to allow a legitimate seller to make a profit at such prices.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Another thing I have found with USB Flash drives. I have had issues with sand disk drives and bootable drives as in windows install or Macrium Reflect recovery drives. What I found works it to clean the drive first then format I see that you didn't try that on your drive and it might be worth a try. Should show whether you got a fake drive also, as clean will take it back to blank, new format will show actual size.

KYHI said:

Try this Tool

Click to expand...

Thanks KYHI, that worked like a champ. I tried NTFS but it wouldn't go, so I tried FAT32 and it formatted fine.

Thanks Berton and LMiller7

Be very sure you us the drive as intended, as a transport media. No flash drive is sufficiently reliable to be trusted as primary storage of important files. Add to that the possibility that they may be lost, stolen, or physically damaged. And all files of any importance, regardless of the media they are on, require at least one backup copy, 2 or more backup copies if they are of particular importance.

I would consider the drive to be of questionable reliability. Being able to be formatted as FAT 32 doesn't prove very much.

Thanks LMiller7, that's good advice. I appreciate it.