
Quick note: You can only use "NTFS" or "FAT32." If you need to format the drive using "exFAT," you will need to use Command Prompt or PowerShell.Click the Storage page on the right side.

To reformat a USB drive through the Disks & volumes settings, use these steps: Windows 11 also comes with the "Disks & volumes" settings, a modern version of the Disk Management tool that allows you to manage drives, including the ability to format USB flash drives. Once you complete the steps, the USB flash drive will erase and format to store files again. This process could take a long time, depending on the capacity. If you clear the option, the tool will perform a full format, scanning for bad and writing zeros in all sectors to delete all the data.

If you do that, and the USB device is still in use, you may corrupt the data on the USB – and in extreme cases even make the entire USB device unusable. There’s a reason why you should always safely remove a USB storage device by ejecting it in Windows 11, rather than simply pulling it out of your computer. However, this is still a frustrating bug that can cause serious issues. You could also argue that this bug at least seems to tell people it’s not safe to remove the USB when it is safe – rather than the other way around.
