How to Wipe All Partitions on USB Flash Drive on Windows

Here's a quick tutorial for wiping all partitions and cleaning everything on the USB Flash Drive on Windows.
1) Open command prompt
2) diskpart
3) list disk
4) select disk 1
5) clean
Twitter: / microwavesam

[@tastydirtydan988]

Thank you for not stretching this to 10 - 15 minutes for no reason. Very useful

[@jonthebru]

Eight years later I used a large flash drive to experiment with Linux and found the problem you solved here. After I did my fiddling with Linux I discovered that the drive couldn't be used for any other purpose. With this video I followed step by step and solved the problem, now it is usable again! Thank you very much!

[@johndavid3598]

Same here. Making Linux bootable USB drives really messes my USB drives up.

[@codesurferdev]

No nonsense, no long intro, straight to the juicy bits, THANK YOU!!!

[@CloneWalker1234]

straight to the point. i find myself continuing to return to this video everytime I have to wipe a USB drive. thank you

[@2endcliffe]

great vid easy and I got my 16gb flash drive back. thanks from uk

[@armandokrulc3822]

so you have the only video on KZbin that truly shows every step corectly and everything works on the end

[@aMAXproduction]

Dude thank you so much! My flashdrive hops between a Mac and PC a lot so things get wonky when I mess with them. But this clears it all up! You're a savior.

[@finkitsallover]

My drive now doesn't appear at all

[@adam.walker]

I used a 16GB flash drive to install Linux on a old laptop and after I was done I had no idea how to get my drive back, This saved me!

[@randomname1519]

I have been with this channel since the wii homebrew videos

[@MicrowaveSam]

+Random Name Hey Random Name, appreciate it! It sure has been a long time since 2011!

[@UnreadyPlayer]

That easier than I thought. Thanks for not beating around the bush, I just saved what I thought was a broken thumb drive

[@dylanbessent8094]

I just want to thank you for all you videos you've made. I learned a lot through every single video. It gave me an interest in technology and now I'm looking into CompTIA Certification. Hope to see an increase in uploads and honestly, you deserve more subs in my opinion.

[@ExitoxminutoBlog]

great! worked ,you are the man!

[@-Snstrm]

This video is over three years old at this point and it still works fine for me. Thanks for the helpful advice.

[@alfmea]

This comment is over 3 years old at this point.

[@crossed82]

@@alfmea For sure, and it just fixed my issue too! Lol It's great to see a six year old video still being relevant in the PC world.

[@frajozelro1954]

At last! I finally found a tutorial that fixed my particular USB problems. The "New Simple Volume..." tip 3:05 made the difference. Thanks.

[@fredlao6655]

i yanked the thumb drive before assigning new drive letter . Failed , inserted thumb drive n finish the video where new letter is assigned and it worked . Thank you sir !!!

[@KhamziTheAfricanAIGuy]

This helped me in 2023, Thanks bro. keep doing what you do

[@wally3813]

Thank you, had like 18 viruses on the drive and like 18 partitions but I got the drive back thanks to your video

[@Stay_Positive_live]

The most usefull tutorial of all time thanks for 5 minutes of pure doing something and it accualy works I'm a programmer and the satisfaction from this tutorial working is extreme! Leaving a sub and a like!

[@EdwinSteiner]

Thanks! Very useful and to the point. P.S.: It seems to help to use "exit" to leave diskpart after "clean" has completed, before creating the new volume. Before I did "exit" diskpart, disk management seemed to block when creating the new volume.

[@TaeConSui]

Man, i don't speak english, so in spanish: Excelente tutorial, de verdad. No conocía este comando de Windows y gracias a él he revivido mi pendrive. Muchas gracias.

[@orangesnowman7137]

Traducción al inglés: Excellent tutorial, really. I did not know this Windows command and thanks to it I have revived my pendrive. Thanks a lot

[@AstrlJelly]

Thank you, I had 10 partitions for some reason, and this put them all together. Thanks for the very helpful and useful guide!

[@whateveryouwantinthepowder3880]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! i tried to install chrome OS on my USB drive to try it out. but then the program that said it was installing it onto my USB drive actually just made 23 partitions and formatted it in a way where windows can't read it. THIS VIDEO SAVED MY USB DRIVE THANKS SO MUCH!

[@muzakeer4495]

A 6yr old vid helped by saving a lot of time thank you ❤️

[@arghyadas4138]

Best Tutorial Ever on KZbin

[@raaska9212]

no comment to describe how grateful i am. man

[@cyril3395]

You saved me man!I almost thought i destroyed my USB Flash Drive.Thanks!!!!!

[@dannysadana5775]

Thank you , Flash Drive is working at full capacity.

[@user-ll2ed3lt4g]

Thank you it worked. One of the guys said he’s drive didn’t appear it was the same with me but we were both idiots and we didn’t go right to the final steps exactly like in your video.

[@Musoholic21]

Such a simple procedure it was . In other videos I even don't know what I am doing

[@AutisticFloppa]

legend, my 2d drive was showing up as 3 drives for some reason and this fixed it.

[@maurog3657]

I was searching for a tutorial video on this and i found your video! My USB drive is now fixed. thx!

[@venkatashivaji]

Simple and the best i found after going to a lot of videos

[@balaji4045]

My usb flash drive dead in 8months and watch your video I am recovery my drive thanks sir most useful video

[@kafu1965]

Not even trash . Works 2019 . Is one of the best tutorials I ever saw on youtube. I tried it and it works . You are explaining really but really good❤

[@joelstolarski2244]

very nicely explained and nice to see the closeups of screen while doing the usb in a side panel. otherwise would have to do full screen and keep switching back and forth. usually use 2 laptops to do tutorials sometimes

[@NeedlessTv_]

Thanks. I flashed my 8 GB USB with windows 10, and this somehow destroyed the partition. Your tutorial helped me fix it.

[@inorgagroni]

Awesome - quick and simple. I had to close Computer Management and reselect the disk in diskpart (gave error "DiskPart has encountered an error: the device is not ready. See the System Event Log for more information."), but other than that, worked flawlessly! Thanks so much

[@detody3985]

Bro thank you so much. You really help me a lot, i thought i killed my USB by my wrong doing. A BIG THUMBS UP👍😀

[@brb-ok8072]

worked. now i can stay at home with my mrs during the lockdown.

[@SharpCosmos]

This helped a lot, for some reason my flash drive was registered as 3 drives and little space in all of them but after what you showed me, boom problem solved.

[@catthing3398]

This works well, this increases the size to the max the USB can hold normally, nice video!

[@helicap11]

Superb!! Short, easy, informative!! Very helpful!

[@johnkasonga6634]

Thanks for the video. I was able to clean my USB after watching this video.

[@tomy741100]

Thanks a lot! Got back my flash drive. Ps: I will never use Rufus again.

[@dnetne5508]

lmao I was doing it for it haha

[@sidharths9416]

Hahahhahaa same here. But now we got the solution isn't ? So we can use it again

[@sirius8163]

This is a really good and simple tutorial. Keep up the great work!

[@ceejcake]

Worked! I bought a drive off of Amazon and it had like 30 partitions not sure why but this fixed it

[@rexcowan4314]

Perfect help video. Had to make allowances for Windows 10 but it worked perfectly. Saved my usb from being thrown out the window.

[@gacerra1]

Worked great, other videos didn't work. this one did thanks

[@leepinnguin9682]

OMG, thanks, you saved my 64GB flash drive for college!! I appreciate it very much!

[@BinauralBae]

Thank you so much for this. Came in handy when my usb wasn't playing nice updating my music gear firmware

[@jeromety3620]

wow quick , simple, easy , what else! thanks man, still useful more than 5 years after! you saved my big usb key!

[@RubenTommelein]

Thnx dude, Windows didn't showed my ubuntu programs on it so I couldn't delete them, now it worked, thanks!

[@vneem3758]

DiskPart has encountered an error: Access is denied. See the System Event Log for more information.

[@satan840]

were you ever able to figure it out? im stuck with the same issue

[@HamburgerTrain13]

Had Raspian on an SD card that had it all partitioned and messy, this video was extremely helpful. Thanks.

[@Borensvids]

thank you, your still helping people in 2017

[@prestozable]

OMG watched so many other videos on how to do this! This one actually helped!!!

[@inxnite4071]

thanks dude i tried to install linux on my usb drive but it ended up kinda corrupted so this helped alot you deserve my sub

[@igorgo4528]

NOTE = in case your Windows 10 has active "Windows Defender Security" -> you must deactivate (switch OFF) Defender, than proceed all steps as in the video. Otherwise your "clear" command in diskpart tool will fail (not executed). Thank you for real help )

[@faheemahmedumrani1710]

Finally a solution video that worked in one go!

[@goldenpotatobull]

Still works in 2020! Thanks for the help my guy!

[@noxxejv7163]

Still works as of March 17, 2021, thanks for the tutorial bro!

[@Sotheli]

Extremely useful, thanks dude! MemTest86 partitioned a flash drive I had from 2g down to 250mb (and didnt work anyway). Couldn't merge the partitions back into one contiguous one! Worked like a charm.

[@kirosun]

searching for command prompt doesnt work however, this solved my issue in mere moments after spending hours and hours trying other crap

[@masongodat5695]

Perfect still 8 years later.

[@Kevtly]

Instructions were clear and I managed to fix my usb! liked and Subscribed ❤

[@amandawilson7071]

THANK YOU!!! I have been trying to reset mine for weeks with no success.. This worked like a charm!

[@jewelkitkatmylady2469]

Thank you so much instead of running to a family gru of comptuer problems i fixed my own problem. Through your very easy youtube video. Diffently made me feel empowered and more confeident in my computer skills. Thank you so much.

[@Cpt.-Sparklez]

@MicrowaveSam Yes for number one and three, however, for number two that's where I have issues, I was able to somehow get to the disk clean up wizard without having first cleaned the usb on command prompt. I'm able to do everything else, but locate the usb on prompt. (Note I did use it to instal tails on it before, not sure if part of a partition is corrupting my usb or something) Thanks a bunch man!

[@therealspadezz]

thank you so much! I cleaned all the data on the flash drive (willingly) in command prompt and it took forever to figure out how to make it exist again haha

[@JoeytheKangarooTech]

TYSM! I needed a flash drive so I could install Windows Developer Preview on my ThinkPad!

[@santetzuken8903]

Thanks. This worked on my usb flash drive with a bootloader and an old hard drive with linux OS on it.

[@kedarlokhande4999]

Thanks a lot, It was so irritating to see that small 144 MB partition, this worked really well.

[@SRJones-ss5sh]

Diskpart does not wipe a USB drive. It merely allows someone to blow away the prior partitions & reformat the USB drive. Until the prior data is overwritten, it can be recovered. I do such all day every day.

[@JO_Artificial]

OMG, I’ve looked for all alternatives, thanks bro, this has helped me out a bunch.

[@DanCastDanny]

Still works on windows 11 in 2023, Thanks!

[@vin8532]

Worked as expected. Thank you for these simple steps!

[@bedhead231]

Fixed my old flash drive thank you!

[@DabooksofEli]

helped me out in 2021, thanks for the info man.

[@mikemartin3877]

Excellent video. Recovered my Flash drive and all working again. Thank you

[@adiss2974]

I found this video so useful. Straight forward, to the point and it still works in 2019!

[@patrickterino201]

Ily my 64gig has been brought back from the dead

[@onskull7365]

i have a little problem now if i go to check the propertys it says plese incert disk

[@AllThatSheWants21]

Thank you, this fixed my broken SD card, couldnt get any data from it but thats okay there was Nothing Important on that anyways, im just happy to be able to use it again

[@TomTerrific]

Great tip that I have never needed until this last few weeks. Easy to follow and it works - THANKS!!!!!!!!!

[@JetteroHeller83]

My 400gb micro SD card is working again. Thank you.

[@blitzblink685]

you're a legend for this thank you so much

[@danishamin397]

1st time got my prob n just 2:41mins (not watching full tuturial) u r rock bro,keep it up.❤️🙂

[@samwithauri]

Straight to the point. Worked like a charm. Thank you.

[@vancemilford9512]

Thank you so much for this video. Got my flash drive back to normal.

[@rexmagi4606]

Thanks man this was one of the few helpful partition-based videos lol.

[@amateurtakeongaming4298]

After command 'clean' You can use 'convert mbr' Then 'create partition primary'

[@alanhart9992]

Nice clean instructions

[@EliteGamingEntertainment]

Thank you for this video. I had 3 separate partitions on my USB and for my KZbin this became a nightmare. Followed the steps you took and i now have 1 partition as 32GB. The other videos had no voice over making it so irritating. Thanks again

[@icemanff23]

Thanks for your video it helped find the missing properties

[@braydonellis6778]

Thank you, it worked and now i have my 32gb flash drive back

[@calimotolife5194]

U are the best man alive thanks so much. I been try to figure this out for hours

[@hellogray878]

Omg thx so much mate i had this 128gb usb flash drive but it came under 1mb now its all back thx.

[@soldadosirio4717]

thank you so much saved me from buying new usb

[@SweetlilAngel]

You are legendary! Thank you so much for your help! It was easy to follow and great advice!