Introduction: How to Reuse / Revert / Re-format a USB Flash Drive From Using It As a BOOTABLE
I am puting this tutorial after a failed attempt at installing ubuntu using a Flash drive as a BOOTABLE device. Then I gave up on the Ubuntu dream, almost!. But I could not reuse my Flash drive normally as a storage device after this process. I went through a bit of trouble searching the web (could be easy for you and you do not need to read this). I found this link
If you do not wanna waste time going through my unnecessarily long steps, here are the short steps that helped me:
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 NTFS in the File System field.
9) Press Start and wait while the process will be completed.
Step 1: Insert the USB Flash Drive Into the USB Port.
hope you can do this. Be grateful you have hands.
Step 2: OPEN DEVICE MANAGER
If you are on Windows 7 you can hit the start button and type "device manager"
you can also open comand promt and type devmgmt.msc then hit ENTER. I searched for "devmgmt.msc" in Start menu WINDOWS 10
Step 3: Find Disk Drives and Expand It.
click on "disk drives"
Step 4: Find the USB Flash Drive You Want to Format
Find the USB flash drive you want to format
, and double-click it. This opens the Properties dialog box.
Step 5: Click Policies Tab.
By default, the Optimize for quick removal option selected,
switch it to Optimize for performance and then press OK.
Step 6: Format Your Flash Drive
Now open Computer.
Right click on the USB Flash Drive and select Format.
The Format dialog box now appears.
Select NTFS in the File System field.
Press Start,
click OK when warning comes up and wait while the process will be complete
Step 7: Your FLash Drive Is Ready to Be Used As a Storage Device
When format is complete you can OPEN you flash disk and its ready to be compy/paste into :-)
Hope this helped
6 Comments
2 years ago on Introduction
Hi, I just want to say thankyou from bottom of my heart to Intractable circuits for helping me to convert my 64GB Dual flash drive into normal one after I changed it to bootable usb. I searched google for months for a solution but no use until I found u. Thanks a lot for the support.
3 years ago
did not work, after selected NTFS and pressed ok there was an issue
Tip 4 years ago
Edit: Every time I need to install ubuntu and restore my flash drive (which happens quite often for me at work), I follow your instructions! To my knowledge, this is still the fastest and easiest way to restore a flash drive! Thanks!
I followed your "quick instructions" up at the top and the only thing that confused me for a second is that when you say "Computer" in step 7, I thought at first you were referring to the "Computer" tab in the device manager. However, you are referring to what shows up in the file manager as "This PC" (at least that's what it is for me!). Might be worth clarifying!
Overall this is the easiest and fastest way I have found to revert a USB back to a storage device from being a bootable device. Thanks!
5 years ago on Step 7
Followed all steps and now I do not have access to the drive...
6 years ago
i do all the steps upto step 5 , but my usb is not showing in my computer. so i cannot go through step 6. please help.
7 years ago on Introduction
Great info, thanks for sharing this.