How to NTFS format USB flash drives

With >4GB capacity USB flash drive becoming more and more ubiquitous, the need to use the NTFS format for a single partition becomes more frequent. (FAT32 on flash drive is limited to 4G.) While a lot of sites will recommend downloading a free utility, you actually don't need that if you are running Windows. To enable the NTFS file format on your USB drive, just do the following:

1. Right click My Computer and select Manage.
2. Open the Device Manager
3. Look for your USB drive in the Disk Drives section and right click it.
4. Select Properties.
5. Go to the Policies tab and select the "Optimize for performance" option.
6. Click OK.

Now open up My Computer and right click on the flash drive and select Format. The NTFS option should be available.

Note once you use the NTFS format you can't downgrade to FAT32. Also, unlike with FAT32 drives which you can usually just unplug without data damage, you need to use the Safely Remove Hardware option (right click on the flash drive icon in the bottom right tray) to ensure data integrity.