If Windows won't format your USB drive to the FAT32 file system, remove the write protection or use CMD, PowerShell, or free software to do the same.

There's nothing worse than plugging in a USB drive and nothing happening. It can be tricky to figure out why on Windows, so we have some suggestions.

If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.

When one of the drives doesn't appear in File Explorer, you can try these troubleshooting steps on Windows 11 to resolve the issue.