Windows was unable to complete format Error – Updated!

Error:

You bought a new hard or portable hard disk and connected it to your computer but you can’t copy any files, it gives an error and you disconnect it from the USB port and then you plug it back in and this time you get a Windows warning that you need to format the hard disk. But when you want to format it, a warning window pops up saying “windows was unable to complete format“. No matter what you do, you cannot format the disk.

Solution:

The solution is of course very simple. With the disk plugged into your PC via USB or SATA port, right click on the My Computer icon and then click on the Manage tab. On the management screen that will open, click on Storage > Disk Management. You will see a list of real and virtual drives connected to your computer. Here, click on the drive letter that Windows automatically assigns to your faulty disk.

1. Right click this area and select “Delete Volume”.

2. Then right click on the partition again and select “New Simple Volume”.

3. In the window that opens, click “Next” to proceed to the next screen.

4. The next screen asks how many parts the HDD will be divided into. If you are using a USB HDD, let’s skip this window by saying Next.

5. You will be asked what letter to name the drive with, let’s skip this with Next.

6. The next screen will ask you which File System to format the disk with and what to name it. Set the file system to NTFS, give it a name of your choice and we will skip this section.

7. On the last screen, click on the “Finish” button to finish the process. After waiting a few minutes or seconds, your disk will be formatted and ready to be used. This will resolve the Windows was unable error.

Finally, if the file system of the disk you purchased is set to FAT32 and not NTFS, make sure to format it as NTFS first before writing any data. Otherwise you will not be able to copy files with a file size over 3.25 Gb. For this you need to convert to NTFS file system. The solution method I described above also applies to this problem.