My USB drive won't format in Windows!

In times where using Explorer/My Computer will not format the drive, there are a couple of easy to do things to possibly make it work again in Windows.

(Screenshot of Windows 8.1 Professional)

First you will need to open "Computer Management".  There are two easy ways to do this you can click on Start then in the search box type compmgmt.msc and press enter. 

You could also right click on My Computer from the desktop or "This PC" from the Start menu, just depends on which version of Windows you are using.  Then select "Manage" from the submenu. 

Both ways will open Computer Management.  Then expand, if needed, the Storage section on the left side of the screen and click on Disk Management from the submenu.

Now select the flash drive from either location as indicated in the screenshot.  Right click on the drive or partition volume and then click the Format option.

You'll be prompted for a few options to choose from, here you will be able to rename the device.  I usually use my full name, followed by a number based on how many flash drives I own.  Granted this doesn't really help any should the device get lost - unless I misplace it at work, which case a co-worker could plug it into their computer and see the name and know to return it to me.

You are also given the option of doing a quick format.  A Quick Format usually works fine for this but, if it fails to format the device then repeat the steps and uncheck the box. 

A regular format may take a very long time, depending on how large your drive storage is! 

You can also change the File System type.  The options are FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT.  If you don't believe you'll use the drive on anything but a Windows computer then you can change the type to NTFS. 

If you are going to use the drive on Legacy Windows or OS X systems (Leopard and older) change the type to FAT32.  The exFAT option is for highest compatibility between modern Windows and OS X computers, a drive formatted exFAT will play happily between both operating systems.  Linux users would need to install exFAT drivers.

Click OK when ready.  Once it has finished, you can close Computer Management and eject the drive like normal.

There may be an occasion where this will not work.  If this happens, download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.  When using this tool, do not perform a Quick Format.  You'll get better results, though a bit slower to process using regular formatting.  You can find this utility by clicking this link.  If this link is broken, do a search for the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool using your favorite search engine.