9 Best Free USB/Disk Formatting Software/Methods - tested

Last updated on Nov 28, 2023

These best free formatters work for all brands and types of usb flash drive, hard drive hdd, memory card... You may use them to force format usb drive/disk/SSD/sd for free.

Guide: How to format disk from bios; unable to format hard drive fixes

Tested 5 Best Free Hard Drive/USB/SD Formatting Tool

noteNote: Before any formatting hdd/SSD/pendrive/SD card, we would recommend you backup data from your media to somewhere else at first. If the device is no longer accessible, you may try this tool: how to recover data from not formatted drive/card

Here are several common and useful free hard disk formatting utilities for you:

1). HP USB Disk Storage Format tool

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is really a free disk formatting tool which allows people to easily and quickly format a USB flash drive to FAT32, exFAT or NTFS file system. And it can work flawlessly even when Windows was unable to complete the format when your usb pen drive turned raw format.

MUST READ: * It needs you to run it under "Administator"

With this software, if necessary, you can also make a bootable USB drive by choosing its "Create a DOS startup disk" option.

hp usb format tool download

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Pros:

*It is completely free and easy to grasp and use.
*It works well in formatting USB drive into FAT32, FAT or NTFS.
*It is portable and could be installed on a flash drive to be used on different PCs.
*It allows people to "Create a DOS startup disk" to help boot up a computer from USB flash drive.
*It supports common Windows operating systems.

Cons:

* It works well on USB flash drive and does not recognize internal hard drives and partitions.
* It needs you to run it under "Administator"

2). IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free

As a disk formatting tool, Partition Resizer Free Edition also allows people to format the selected hard drive or partition into FAT32/ntfs for free. As a partition managing program, this software also helps format, create, wipe, delete, resize, hide and manage partitions effectively for you.

format tool

Free USB/Disk Formatter

download

Download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free Edition to format disk/usb/memory card totally free of charge.

Format, repair bad blocks totally free of charge.

Must have: it has 'Check Partition' function to check and repair possible errors for your digital devices.

format toolrepair bad sectors

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Pros:

*The home edition is free and easy.
*It helps format hard drive or partition into FAT32 as you wish.
*It also help format, wipe, delete, resize, hide and manage computer internal hard drive partitions well.
*A tutorial video will also be automatically popped out and lead you to this software step by step.
*It supports the latest Windows 11/10/8/7 Vista and XP.

Cons:

*This home edition is free for personal use.

Note: this freeware also provides bootable iso version that you may format disk/SSD/usb under WinPE.

format tool bootable iso

Read more details: Partition software bootable iso download

3). Rufus - format device that cannot be formatted

Rufus is an easy to use freeware that is able to format media which cannot be formatted in regular ways.

Rufus download url: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.11/rufus-3.11.exe

format with rufus

Also read: how to format sd card that cannot be formatted, or format usb drive that won't format

4). HDD Low Level Format Tool

HDD Low Level Format Tool is also another completely free disk formatting utility and allows people to easily format internal and external hard disk. With a Low-level format function, it often helps users format a hard drive completely and leave no original drive data there as well as removing some basic hard drive problems.

hdd low level format

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Pros:

*It is free and user-friendly.
*It support not only external hard drives, and also reads internal hard drives.
*It also offers a low-level format option to help users completely format hard drive and also ease everything inside drive.
*It also supports external memory cards, like SD, MMC, memory stick, CF card and more.

Cons:

*Pay $3.30 to upgrade this free tool to get faster speed and free lifetime updates.
*It recognizes the internal hard drive as one, not separated partitions.
*The speed of this free version is capped at 180GB per hour which is 50MB/s.

5). USB Disk Storage Format Tool

As the second disk formatting tool tested and listed here, USB disk storage format tool is also 100% freeware and allows people to completely format any USB flash drive or memory card with FAT, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file system format.

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usb disk format tool

Pros:

*It is free, fast and safe to format a flash drive or memory card.
*It supports all USB flash drives and memory card, like pen drive, thumb drive, CF, SD, Micro SD, TF, SDXC, SDHC memory card and more storage devices with different bands.
*It supports USB drive and memory card with FAT, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file system types.
*It helps formatting storage device and also removes all stored videos, music and files completely. 

Cons:

*It also does not read any internal hard disk and partition.
*Upgrade software to pro version to get more features, like creating bootable USB disk, formatting USB disk not recognized by Windows, doing a low-level format or adjusting cluster size for USB disk for faster speed, etc.
*It supports FAT, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file system types only.

6). Tokiwa FAT32 Formatter

Tokiwa FAT32 Formatter is also a free disk formatting program which also helps everyone format hard disk and partition into FAT32 for free. With an easy-to-use interface, this software is also able to help delete or initialize a drive or partition smoothly.

tokiwa formatter

Pro:

*It is free and easy to grasp.
*It allows users to delete or initialize hard drive partitions with simple clicks.
*It also reads all computer internal hard drives as separated partitions.
*It also allows user to format drive or partition into FAT32

Cons

*It is able to format only unallocated space into FAT32 file system type.
*It only allows people to format hard drive or partition into FAT32.
*It supports Windows XP/Vista /2000 /7 only.

Free usb/disk formatting without software

Here are also some free methods that are available for you to operate hard drive formatting or usb format without any software under Windows.

Tool #6: format by right click the disk drive, pen drive or sd card

format by right click

Tool #7: Format under PC Disk Management

format under disk management

Tool #8: format with cmd, it works when Windows was unable to complete the format

Step 1: open cmd by typing "cmd" or "diskpart" in "Search Programs and Files" under Windows start

open cmd

Step 2: type the letters inside of the quote "format F: /fs:fat32" and enter. F must be replaced by the drive you want to format.

format raw fat32 cmd

If you want to know more solution about why and what to do when Windows was unable to complete the format, you may read this article: Windows failed to format

Or you may see the following video to get a quick fix when it is unable to format your drive/card.

Note: when your flash drive or hard disk is damaged, be free to try these 8 free usb drive repair software for free repairing.

Remove Sensitive Data on Hard Disk/USB Flash by freeware Partition Resizer Free

Some users want to download disk formatting programs with the purpose of removing personal information on their storage media that they do not want to share any byte of the confidential data with another one.

In case of removing sensitive data with the usb format tools, we would recommend this freeware - Partition Resizer Free to you since it is built with a function - 'Wipe Partition' that could wipe the whole disk or usb by writing 0 or 1 into the disk, which makes the old data to be completely overwritten and can not be restored by any data recovery programs.

Step 1: Download and install Partition Resizer Free and get the usb/card to your PC if you want to remove an external device.

Step 2: Launch Partition Resizer Free and then right click the media you want to remove its privacy.

disk format

Step 3: Choose a wiping method. Time consumption depends on how much data on your media. Usually 120GB data would take about 10 minutes.

disk format

Part 3 - USB Format Tool APK/APP for Android Phone

The Question: How do I format usb with usb format app/apk on Android mobile without computer?

Solution: Format USB on Android phone using OTG with the following steps that even does not require an usb format app/apk on android phone.

  • Connect usb flash drive or external hdd to phone using an OTG cable
  • Go to storage settings
  • Tab usb storage, and format it with the column 'Erase USB storage'disk format on android wihtout computer

Note: If you want to format sd/usb fat32 with Android phone, you need to pull out the sd from the phone which does not provide a fat32 formatting option and connect it to a computer Windows/MAC, and format the media card in a computer to fat32.

Also read: how to format sd fat32

FAQs

Question: USB format tool FAT32, how to format usb to fat32 on Windows 10/11? Free fat32 format utility?

Answer: Almost every method included on this page could format usb/disk to fat32 except the one on Android phone. For example, if you want to format usb fat32 on Windows computer, you may go right clicking usb in computer file explorer, and format; or format usb fat32 in disk management and then there is option for file system fat32.

usb format fat32

Also read: how to format sd fat32 ; or how to format sd/usb fat32 on MAC; or how to format raw usb fat32

Question: How to format ssd for Windows 10? how to format ssd with Windows on it?

Answer: If the SSD is not the one that has boot volume, you may format it with any method included on this page. If the ssd has Windows OS on it, you may format ssd from bios with the following method:

Guide: How to format disk from bios

Conclusion:

No matter why you have to format a hard drive, usb flash drive or memory card, there are always free ways for you to choose, like formatting it in My Computer, performing a formatting process in Disk Management, formatting a hard drive with common line, doing a formatting process with drive partition managing software or disk formatting software. Before the formatting, do extract backup data in advance to avoid unexpected data loss.

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