How To: Format a USB Flash drive to NTFS file system

Normal option available in the format utility is FAT and FAT32 file systems. This is the default settings in the Windows XP. You can select option to format your removable storage devices in NTFS format.

The advantages of enablng NTFS of removable storage devices are mostly security related. NTFS allows larger file sizes, encryption,compression and permissions. So overhead operations associated with NTFS makes devices slower.

The USB with NTFS can only work in Windows system or system that recognizes NTFS file systems.

How to format USB drive with NTFS file system

Right click on the MY Computer and select Manage.
manage my computer
Next Click on the Device Manager and then expand the Desk Drives. You should see the USB drive, select and right click and choose Properties. Then go to Policies tab.

usb disk drive

Now you will see two options, the “Optimize for quick removal” selected by default. Go ahead and change that by selecting the “Optimize for performance” option.

optimize for performance

That’s it. Now click OK and then go to My Computer. Right click on the drive in My Computer and choose Format. In the File System drop down you will now see the option for NTFS!





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