If Windows won't format your USB drive to the FAT32 file system, remove the write protection or use CMD, PowerShell, or free software to do the same.

If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.

In this guide, we'll show you the steps to format a USB flash drive on Windows 11 using File Explorer, Settings app, Disk Management tool, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.

While it was possible to create larger FAT32 partitions using third-party tools or PowerShell commands, the default Windows formatting tools imposed this restriction.