Hello! I tried to find a "how to" post on formatting large capacity flash drives but I can only find links to external utilities or programs to purchase. Now that we have Sentry Mode on all the time (except when we're home!) and, since I like to save clips especially on beautiful days - I'm saving clips from our neighborhood through all the seasons) - my 16 GB drive filled too quickly.
Personally, I just don't trust what an EXE file I find online could potentially do to my computer. And I certainly don't want to pay for something that my PC can already do.
It's actually very easy to format a drive yourself! Open a command prompt window - I have Windows 10, so press Start, then type CMD. You'll want to elevate it to run as Admin, so right click and choose "Run as Administrator".
You can see all the parameters and what they do by typing,
Format /?
All I need is to specify the File System and for these larger USB flash drives, set an Allocation unit size, and make it a "quick" format. I like to add a volume name (but it's optional and can be done later.) Just BE SURE to use your correct flash drive letter!!!
To check, I plug in the USB flash drive, I see it's identified as "D:" (To quickly see your drives, open an Explore window with StartKey + e, choose "this PC")
For me, I bought a Samsung 128 GB for $25 on Amazon. I like the small size, it doesn't overheat, has many great reviews. [link] )
So then, my format command is
Format d: /FS:FAT32 /A:32768 /V:tesla /q
You can copy/paste that line to your Command Prompt window, again, please make sure you have the correct drive letter!!
Here's a table of the common allocation unit sizes for FAT32:
256 MB - 8 GB would use 8 KB ( so type /A:8192 )
16 GB - 32 GB would use 16 KB ( so type /A:16384 )
32 GB - 2 TB would use 32 KB ( so type /A:32768 )
I hope this helps!
Personally, I just don't trust what an EXE file I find online could potentially do to my computer. And I certainly don't want to pay for something that my PC can already do.
It's actually very easy to format a drive yourself! Open a command prompt window - I have Windows 10, so press Start, then type CMD. You'll want to elevate it to run as Admin, so right click and choose "Run as Administrator".
You can see all the parameters and what they do by typing,
Format /?
All I need is to specify the File System and for these larger USB flash drives, set an Allocation unit size, and make it a "quick" format. I like to add a volume name (but it's optional and can be done later.) Just BE SURE to use your correct flash drive letter!!!
To check, I plug in the USB flash drive, I see it's identified as "D:" (To quickly see your drives, open an Explore window with StartKey + e, choose "this PC")
For me, I bought a Samsung 128 GB for $25 on Amazon. I like the small size, it doesn't overheat, has many great reviews. [link] )
So then, my format command is
Format d: /FS:FAT32 /A:32768 /V:tesla /q
You can copy/paste that line to your Command Prompt window, again, please make sure you have the correct drive letter!!
Here's a table of the common allocation unit sizes for FAT32:
256 MB - 8 GB would use 8 KB ( so type /A:8192 )
16 GB - 32 GB would use 16 KB ( so type /A:16384 )
32 GB - 2 TB would use 32 KB ( so type /A:32768 )
I hope this helps!