Can’t format flash drive to FAT32 in Windows 10

I want to format a USB flash drive to FAT32 as that’s what my car infotainment system can read, and Windows 10’s format command only offers NTFS and exFAT.  How can I format this drive as FAT32?

Just FYI – the drive is 64 GB, but I have other 64 GB drives that are FAT32 with 32KB sectors.  I can’t even get those to reformat in FAT32 regardless of Quick Format being enabled or disabled!

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern, and we in Community will try to help you in the best possible way we can.

I suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps:

  1. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port.
  2. Click Start, type devmgmt.msc in the Search textbox and press Enter.
  3. Find Disk Drives and expand it.
  4. Find the USB flash drive you want to format, and double-click it. It opens the Properties dialog box.
  5. Click Policies tab.
  6. By default, the Optimize for quick removal option selected, switch it to Optimize for performance and then press OK.
  7.  Now open Computer. Right click on the USB Flash Drive and select Format. The Format dialog box now appears.
  8. Select FAT32 in the File System field.
  9. Press Start and wait while the process will be completed.
  10. Now your USB Flash Drive is formatted with FAT32 format.

Leave a Reply