How do I tell if a flash drive is not "formatted" for a windows system? ?

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It will ask you, nothing is automated in this modern life.

Plug it into your windows computer. If it recognizes it, good. If not, format it to make it compatible.

Mine told me right away that the drive is not formatted. Should it format ? Y?N?

Plug it in and open File Explorer.  It the Drive is listed it is formatted.

Right Click on the Drive and select Properties to see which format: (NTFS or FAT).

Either will work.

If you plug in the Drive and it is not showing up in File Explorer, open Disk Manager and see it shows up there.  If it does, right click on it and either format it or assign a drive letter.

If the USB Flash Drive does not show up in Disk Manager, it is bad (dead).

To open Disk Manager =  Right Click on START and in the Pop up Menu select Disk Manager.

If it is not formatted it won't be able to read it.If you want to format it click on computer in the start menu and look for it.It should say the brand USB and the what port like A B D E.  Double click to see what on it/Right click to see menu and format. After it's formatted you  can copy files simply by right clicking the file and choose send to whatever USB drive it is example>send to usb drive E.When your done right click again on the usb drive and choose eject.You'll then see a message saying it's safe to remove.

If the flash drive file system is something other than FAT, FAT32, NTFS, or exFAT...then it's not compatible with windows for the common user.

To make the flash drive compatible...right click on the drive in windows explorer and select format and use the FAT32 file system (ideal for most flash drives) and you're done.