How to Fix “Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format” Error
- The drive is protected. If you or another person applied write protection to the drive, you may not be able to format it, leading to the error. You can easily test this by trying to copy something onto the drive. If you see “The disk is write-protected. Remove the write-protection or use another disk.” then this is the most likely reason.
- The drive is physically damaged. Not all drives can withstand the test of time. Even if no direct damage is visible on the drive itself, it could be suffering from several internal damages. If this is the case, you may consider purchasing a new drive as a replacement.
- The drive is infected with malware. Some attackers often target USB sticks to spread malware. If your drive is currently infected with malware, it could be put out of service by the attacker.
- The drive doesn’t have contents. Windows is unable to format an empty drive. This is because the formatting is based on partitions, as opposed to disk space. If there’s no space occupied, it can’t be broken down into partitions.