This is How You Force Stop a Format in Progress

Corruption in storage devices

If you use storage devices regularly, then you know that corruption problems are not very uncommon. These issues can occur due to various reasons such as pulling out the device without using ‘Safely remove hardware’ or pulling it out during the middle of a transfer process. In other cases, it can also occur due to virus attacks or due to bad sectors on the device.

In order to resolve such corruption issues, of course, CHKDSK is the first best solution. It checks for file system issues and also checks the device for bad sectors. Any issues encountered will be immediately fixed and if successful, your device will be back to working condition again. However, if CHKDSK does not help, you may need to format the drive to resolve errors. Formatting resolves all types of corruption issues and also has the ability to fix RAW/inaccessible drives.

Depending on the size of the USB device and level of corruption, formatting may take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. But in rare cases, it may get stuck at formatting for a very long time, which can be extremely annoying.

You click on Cancel in the format window, you restart your system, disconnect power, but nothing seems to work. Now you’re wondering how to cancel a format in progress. Is it even possible? Let us find out more in this article.

How to force stop a format in progress?

Solution 1: Use Task Manager

1. As a first step, click on Ctrl + Alt + Del to open Task Manager
2. In the Processes tab, check the ‘formatting’ process. If you find that formatting is stuck at the same progress %, then click on End process to end the formatting process.

Solution 2: Turn the disk Offline

In some cases, using Task Manager may not stop the format process. If you find that this is the case, then you can turn the disk Offline through using the command prompt. Just follow the steps below.

1. Click on Windows + X keys and select Command Prompt
2. In the command prompt, type ‘diskpart’
3. Then type ‘list disk’
4. Note down the disk number associated with the disk that you are trying to format
5. Then type ‘offline disk’

This command should turn the disk to ‘Offline’, thus force stopping the format process. But you should understand that ending the format process midway does involve a number of risks. The drive may end up with a ‘RAW’ or with an ‘inaccessible’ status.

Hence, it is always advisable that you have a backup of the drive. If you don’t have a backup or you want to recover data after formatting, data recovery tools are your best bet.

Remo Recover performs a wonderful job at recovering data after formatting or partitioning a drive. It can also recover data from corrupted or inaccessible/RAW drives. What’s more important to understand is that it can recover data not only from your systems but also from other storage media such as external hard drives, USB flash drives, and SD cards. Refer the link recover files from corrupted external hard disk for details on the product and the steps involved. Remo offers a free trial, make sure to take advantage of the offer and try today!