PC crashes every time I try to format external USB drive

[STEVE135]

My PC crashes (BSOD) now every time I try to format a USB drive.  Happens over and over with all different drives.  MY BIOS may be out of date, but I'm afraid to update since I upgraded the original Win 8.1 OS to Win 10.  The only available BIOS download is for Win 8.1 and nothing for Win 10.  Will that 8.1 download work or will it cause problems

[Dragon-Fur]

@STEVE135

Do not (attempt to) install a BIOS from / for Windows 8.1 into Windows 10.

The culprit might be one or more unidentified hardware IDs in your Device Manager.

Migrated systems do present challenges -- if your computer's Support Home provides HP drivers for Windows 10, do install what is available.

Start with the chipset, network audio -- and then whatever you can find.

Rather than inflicting more BSODs on your computer, perhaps ask a friend to format the drive on his computer. 

Thank you for participating in the HP Community Forum.

We are a community of HP enthusiasts dedicated to supporting HP devices and technology.

[STEVE135]

Thanks for the heads up on the BIOS--will leave that alone.  My problem is that, in using my backup software to create a bootable recovery drive, it insists on formatting the USB drive first.  The format gets mostly done , then the BSOD.  Get error: stopcode FAT FILE SYSTEM.

Any thoughts>

Thanks

Steve

[wb2001]

@Dragon-Fur is on track with you, so I will only ask that you mention the following.

1) Manufacturer of original hard drive.

2) Manufacturer of external hard drive.

3) Name of cloning software.   It should not be using the FAT file system.

[Big_Dave · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please post the HP product number for your PC. How to Find the HP Model Number and the HP Product Number or let HP automatically find your PC model number and HP network attached printers. This will allow others to review your issue, make suggestions and review your responses. This is usually the best way to get assistance.

Windows 8 BIOS updates are compatible with W10 according to HP internal. I suggest that you look over the fix list.

Depending the total size of the backup objects, you may need either a bigger USB flash drive or to format it differently to take advantage of the USB flash drive capacity.  I would suggest using NTFS as it's very accommodating to different size flash drives.

[STEVE135]

Thanks for you reply and the suggestions are good ones.  My flash drive was plenty big enough and formatted to NTFS.  Finally, as a last resort I unplugged another external hard drive and was finally able to make a bootable USB and also was able to format another USB drive with BSOD.  So that does seem to solve it for now although I have no idea why this just started happening since I've had this setup for some years.  

As for the BIOS, I would like to update it (mine is dated 2012) but am still afraid to use the Win 8.1 update without assurances from someone at HP.  Unfortunately, I can only talk to them now (out of warranty) if I pay them!

Again, thanks for your help.

Steve