Whenever I insert my flash drive in the computer, a pop window appears to format my disk. Whenever I try to format it, a pop up window appears that Windows cannot format F.

You have to be the computers administrator to change any values on any hard drive on your computer.
Click start control panel user accounts on the users tab click the name of the computer administrator you must have full control
Click start click to open on my computer you should see your usb drive could be E: or something right click select properties there will be an array of options
select the sharing tab option then advanced sharing make sure you have a tick in the share this folder box
then click permissions make sure you have all 3 boxes ticked full control changes and read in windows 7
Click start control panel user accounts click on the administrators account if you have made one or you will have to create one in windows XP
The Fat32 (FAT) format is used to format disk drives on Windows-based computers and can also be recognized by the Mac's OS X operating system.
You can format a flash drive with the FAT format so that it can be used on both PCs and Macs. The procedure is straightforward, if different depending upon the operating system being used to do the formatting.
You do not need to purchase any additional software to format the Flash drive in the FAT format.
http://www.supermediastore.com/article/u/how-to-format-usb-flash-memory

http://download.cnet.com/hp-usb-disk-storage/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
Format USB flash drives with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition types.
Plug the Flash drive into a USB port on the Mac.
Double-click the "Applications" folder inside of the Mac's hard drive. Scroll down to the "Utilities" folder.
Double-click the "Utilities" folder.
Scroll down to the Disk Utility program.
Double-click on the Disk Utility program to launch it.
Click once on the icon of the Flash drive that is in the left column of the Disk Utility program's main screen.
Click on the "Erase" tab at the top of the window of the Disk Utility program's main screen.
Name the Flash drive in the "Name" column at the center of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Select "MSDOS (FAT) from the "Format" menu beneath "Name."
Click the "Erase" button at the lower right corner of the Disk Utility program's main screen.
Click the "Erase" button in the pop-up confirmation window that appears.
Wait as a progress bar at the bottom of the Disk Utility program's main screen fills in from left to right.
Click the "Eject" button at the top of the Disk Utility program's main screen once the progress bar is completely filled in. Quit the Disk Utility program.
Remove the Flash drive from the USB port of the Mac.
Format Flash Drive in FAT on a PC
Plug the Flash drive into a USB port on the PC. Go to "start," "My Computer."
Right-click on the icon of the Flash drive in the center column of the window that appears below "Devices with Removable Storage."
Select "Format" from the pop-up menu.
Select "FAT32" from the "File System" drop-down menu in the window that appears.
Click the "Start" button at the bottom of the window.
Click the "OK" button in the confirmation pop-up window that appears.
Wait as a progress bar fills in from left to right at the bottom of the window where you had selected "Fat32." Click the "OK" button on the "Format Complete" pop-up window when it appears.
Right-click on the icon of the Flash drive that is on the desktop.
Select "Erase" from the pop-up menu.
Remove the Flash drive from the USB port of the PC.

USB flash drives are small, convenient storage drives. Place data such as pictures, photos and text on them quickly and efficiently and then carry it to another computer for copying to its hard drive.

A USB flash drive that has security enabled in it must be 'unlocked" before it can be used, which becomes difficult if the password has been lost. Because the security on the USB flash drive is rudimentary, a number of methods, from built-in software to optional programs, can remove the security so that the drive can be used.

Plug the USB connector of the USB flash drive into a USB port on the PC. Right-click on the icon of the USB flash drive when it appears on the desktop of a Windows-based computer. Select "Format" from the pop-up menu. Follow the command prompts in the window that appears to format the USB flash drive. Click "Done" in the confirmation window when it appears. The USB flash drive can now be used because the security has been removed from its storage space. Plug the USB connector of the USB flash drive into a USB port on the Mac. Double-click on the Mac's Disk Utility program, which comes free with the OS X operating system and is in the "Utilities" folder on the hard drive. Select the icon of the USB flash drive in the left column of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Select the "Erase" tab at the top of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Click on the "Format" check box on the right side of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Select "Fat (32)" from the drop down menu below the "Format" check box. Click "Format" at the bottom of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Click "Format", again, in the confirmation box that appears. Quit the Disk Utility program when the formatting is done. The USB flash drive can now be used because the security has been removed from its storage space. Download a password protection program to the computer's desktop; for example, the free TrueCrypt password protection program (see the link Below). http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads Double-click on the icon of the password protection program when it has fully downloaded. Follow the command prompts to install the program onto the computer's hard drive. Restart the PC after the installation has been completed. Double-click on the password protection program to launch it. Wait for the password protection program to recognize the USB flash drive and display disc letters for the drives attached to the computer in the left column of its main program screen. Plug the USB connector of the USB flash drive into a USB port on the computer. Wait for a letter to appear in the left column of the password protection program's main screen. Use the mouse to click once on this letter which represents the USB flash drive. Click on the "Volume" or "Volume Tools" button to open a new window. Click on the "Next" button in the new window. Erase the password in the "Password" column of the new window that appears. Erase the password in the "Confirm password" column. Click on the "Next" button to go to a new screen. Select "Traveler Disk Setup" from the drop down menu below "Tools" at the top of the password protection screen. Click on the "Open Explorer window for mounted volume" check box in the new window that appears. Click the "Create" button at the bottom of the window. Click the "OK" button on the confirmation window when it appears. Quit the password protection program. Drag the icon of the USB flash drive to the Trash or right-click on it and select "Eject" from the pop-up menu. Remove the USB flash drive from the computer's USB port. Plug the connector of the USB flash drive back into the computer's USB port. Double-click on the icon of the USB flash drive when it appears on the desktop to open its window now that the security password has been removed. Plug the USB connector of the USB flash drive into a USB port on the PC. Go to "Start" and select "Run" from the pop-up menu. Enter "regedit" into the text column that appears and press the "enter" key to run the registry editor. Press the "Browse" button on the registry editor's main screen and navigate to the following path on the computer's hard drive: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies" Click "OK" to close the window. Double-click on the "WriteProtect" text that is in the right column of the registry editor's main screen. Enter "O" into the "Value Data box" in the window that appears. Click on the "OK" button to close the window. Quit the registry editor program. Restart the PC. Double-click on the icon of the USB flash drive that is on the desktop to open its window and access the files now that the security write protection has been removed.

Hope this helps.

The Fat32 (FAT) format is used to format disk drives on Windows-based computers and can also be recognized by the Mac's OS X operating system. You can format a flash drive with the FAT format so that it can be used on both PCs and Macs. The procedure is straightforward, if different depending upon the operating system being used to do the formatting. You do not need to purchase any additional software to format the Flash drive in the FAT format.

http://www.supermediastore.com/article/u/how-to-format-usb-flash-memory b> http://download.cnet.com/hp-usb-disk-storage/3000-2094_4-10974082.html Format USB flash drives with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition types. Plug the Flash drive into a USB port on the Mac. Double-click the "Applications" folder inside of the Mac's hard drive. Scroll down to the "Utilities" folder. Double-click the "Utilities" folder. Scroll down to the Disk Utility program. Double-click on the Disk Utility program to launch it. Click once on the icon of the Flash drive that is in the left column of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Click on the "Erase" tab at the top of the window of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Name the Flash drive in the "Name" column at the center of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Select "MSDOS (FAT) from the "Format" menu beneath "Name." Click the "Erase" button at the lower right corner of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Click the "Erase" button in the pop-up confirmation window that appears. Wait as a progress bar at the bottom of the Disk Utility program's main screen fills in from left to right. Click the "Eject" button at the top of the Disk Utility program's main screen once the progress bar is completely filled in. Quit the Disk Utility program. Remove the Flash drive from the USB port of the Mac. b> Format Flash Drive in FAT on a PC b> Plug the Flash drive into a USB port on the PC. Go to "start," "My Computer." Right-click on the icon of the Flash drive in the center column of the window that appears below "Devices with Removable Storage." Select "Format" from the pop-up menu. Select "FAT32" from the "File System" drop-down menu in the window that appears. Click the "Start" button at the bottom of the window. Click the "OK" button in the confirmation pop-up window that appears. Wait as a progress bar fills in from left to right at the bottom of the window where you had selected "Fat32." Click the "OK" button on the "Format Complete" pop-up window when it appears. Right-click on the icon of the Flash drive that is on the desktop. Select "Erase" from the pop-up menu. Remove the Flash drive from the USB port of the PC. Hope this helps.
b>

The drive has two components:
* the electronics that tell Windows that it is a flash-drive
* the actual "memory"

In your case, the 1st component is working fine, but the 2nd component has failed.

Spend $10 to purchase a new flash-drive.

Hi,

Would you try to format your flash drive using this software which I uploaded HERE. Download and unzip the file. Then run the exe file.

Do the followings:


- First plug in your micro-sd card into you PC using USB cable.

- Run the downloaded "HPUSBFW_2.2.3_MASTER.exe" file.

- In the program menu window, select the device (your flash drive).

- Select FAT32 as file system,

- Confirm that all the format options unchecked. (Uncheck the quick format option)

- And click the "Start" button to begin formatting.


- Then restart your computer to recognize your flash drive. Or from control panel, go to Add devices menu and search your flash drive to find and add.

Hope this helps.

Sometimes when a flash memory stick fails because it was not removed from the USB port properly. If the device is removed by just pulling it out of the USB port, it can cause the flash device to fail, you must click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the Task Bar and select the device you wish to remove and only do so when instructed to do so.

When the flash memory device appears to malfunction it maybe possible to restore it by reformatting it. Insert the flash drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Healthy.

You need to format the external drive. Format the drive as primary drive and in FAT32. (FAT32 will allow data to be exchanged between MACs and PCs).
Insert the external hard drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Health

Sometimes when a flash memory stick fails because it was not removed from the USB port properly. If the device is removed by just pulling it out of the USB port, it can cause the flash device to fail, you must click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the Task Bar and select the device you wish to remove and only do so when instructed to do so.

When the flash memory device appears to malfunction it maybe possible to restore it by reformatting it. Insert the flash drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Healthy.

You need to format the external drive. Format the drive as primary drive and in FAT32. (FAT32 will allow data to be exchanged between MACs and PCs).
Insert the external hard drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Health

Try formatting the flash drive using this method.

Sometimes when a flash memory stick fails because it was not removed from the USB port properly. If the device is removed by just pulling it out of the USB port, it can cause the flash device to fail, you must click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the Task Bar and select the device you wish to remove and only do so when instructed to do so.

When the flash memory device appears to malfunction it maybe possible to restore it by reformatting it. Insert the flash drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Healthy.

You need to format the external drive. Format the drive as primary drive and in FAT32. (FAT32 will allow data to be exchanged between MACs and PCs).
Insert the external hard drive into the USB port then Click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.
Then right click on Disk 1 removable drive and click Format. After the flash drive has been formatted it will indicate that it is Health

Hi sir

1. 1 Insert your memory card into your computer's reader if you have one. If not, you can purchase a multi-format USB Memory Card reader from Amazon.com or Buy.com
   
2. 2 Open up 'My Computer'. You should see it under the list of available drives.
   
3. 3 Check its contents first to make sure that you have the right drive.
   
4. 4 In 'My Computer', right-click on the drive and choose 'Format'.
   
5. 5 Leave all the options as they are and click on 'Start'. This is a non-reversible process so make sure this is what you truly wanted to do in the first place.
   
6. 6 Once the process is completed, take the memory card out and insert it into your Digital Camera or any other device. Try to browse to it to make sure it works fine now.
   

Insert new disk for drive F:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
Please use the /FS switch to specify the file system
you wish to use on this volume.