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I have a 128 GB memory stick which shipped with a exFAT-formatted file system.

But when I try to reformat it (context menu properties in File Explorer), it only offers to format to NTFS with no other possible choices. What happened to exFAT? And even FAT32 should be in there, possibly? Why only NTFS?

exFAT is made by Microsoft, and was made for flash drives, so it cannot be a licensing or "them trying to protect me" thing. And the memstick was already running exFAT, so it can't not be able to have exFAT either.

This kind of thing can drive me insane. I've searched but of course only found unrelated garbage and those surreal "Microsoft technician" threads which never answer the question.

Also, I cannot do this via diskman, because there it just shows up as "RAW" (actually a VeraCrypt volume). But even if it were possible from there, I'm still primarily wondering about why this happens rather than trying to find any way to format as exFAT.

Alecsander
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    I just tried a 128 GB stick and had two options : exFAT (default) and NTFS. Are you sure there's no other option in the drop-down list? Maybe a screenshot would help. – harrymc Oct 20 '22 at 14:55
  • @harrymc I am extremely sure about it, yes. – Alecsander Oct 20 '22 at 15:10
  • Start by testing Windows integrity by running [Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth](https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/7808-use-dism-repair-windows-10-image.html) and then [sfc /scannow](https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2895-run-sfc-command-windows-10-a.html) and also `chkdsk`. – harrymc Oct 20 '22 at 15:14
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    Relevant comment from other answer: https://superuser.com/questions/1086749/how-do-i-format-an-internal-hard-drive-to-exfat-in-windows-10#comment2332945_1420186 – Saaru Lindestøkke Oct 20 '22 at 19:12

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Try a third-party tool, such as free DiskGenius, or an alternative. One of these tools should be able to show the USB flash drive's space allocation in detail, and show any damaged partitions or other issues preventing formatting exFAT. After you've tried to diagnose the cause of the issue, use the tool to try to resolve it.

  • First delete all existing partitions, making the device is marked entirely as free space. Commit that action.
  • Then create one partition. Commit that action.
  • Now, format it as exFAT.
DrMoishe Pippik
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  • Correct , @KamilMaciorowski , I had got some similar work-around , but I did not Post it because I did not know that **"why"** Part of it !! – Prem Oct 20 '22 at 19:53