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Using Ubuntu 11.10, how do I format an external or USB drive? I don't find an option to 'format' when I right click. In the new version, the drives don't come up on the desktop but instead come on the Launcher.

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7 Answers

up vote 49 down vote

You can use the disk utility(installed by default) to format the drive. There is an option 'format volume' select that option.

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And what if I get "Error creating partition table: helper exited with exit code 1: cannot open /dev/sdc: Read-only file system"? – Bucic Feb 17 '12 at 18:51
What's the package name for this application? I don't have it installed on Kubuntu. – enedene Aug 28 '12 at 18:15
The executable name is palimpsest from the gnome-disk-utility package – mnencia Nov 2 '12 at 9:19
up vote 14 down vote

I would recommend you installing GParted which is quite a powerful tool but still easy to use:

sudo apt-get install gparted

when you installed and opened it, it should be self-explanatory, otherwise dont hesitate to ask in a comment.

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Just a note: You need to actualize/commit the changes for them to take effect. – ObsessiveSSOℲ Aug 2 '12 at 15:44
up vote 4 down vote

There's a tool which is called Disk Utility (gnome-disk-utility). Just open it by searching in the Dash. It should show all your drives and USB sticks. I think using it is very easy. ;-)

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I just checked. You should indeed be able to format drives with it, and it's called Disk Utility in the English version. – WarriorIng64 Oct 19 '11 at 4:56
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You can't find the gnome-disk-utility from the dash. For some reason it goes by the name 'palimpsest'... Don't ask why – user43845 Jan 27 '12 at 17:48
up vote 2 down vote

The simplest way is to use the Disk Utility already installed. Type 'Disk Utility' in the launcher and find your USB drive. The options are intuitive from that point, with 'Format Drive' being one of the buttons to click. You can also unmount and partition the drive from the same screen.

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up vote 2 down vote

Formatting a USB drive (Updated for Ubuntu 13.04)

Type Disks in Dash

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Click on the little gears to open the sub menu as seen in the image below, and click on Format.

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Once the format window appear, choose the way you want to erase, The type of format, and volume name if you need, and then click on format as shown in the image below.

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up vote 1 down vote

here is the another way to do this you can also use the terminal to format any flash drive or external HDD plz watch this

http://youtu.be/z6TEh762Vec

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up vote 0 down vote

You can check the permissions of the drive in the properties in the file viewer (Nautilus, Dolphin) or you can check it from the Terminal with ls -l /media/your-hard-drive. If the files are not owned by you, you will have trouble.

What you can do is use a tool like gparted, the partition editor and reformat it. When you mount the drive as a regular user from your file manager, you should have permission to write on it.

You can try to write as root onto the drive, that should work in any case. If that also fails, you have some different problem than permissions.

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