How to format a USB flash drive?

Question

In Windows there is a straightforward "Format" option in a flash drive's right-click pop-up menu. Where's that in Ubuntu?

Answer 1

You can use Disks it's installed by default and easy to use.

• 1st: Click on the Dash icon
• 2nd: Search for "Disks"
• 3rd: Click on Disks

The application will shows up:

• 1st: Choose the USB flash drive
• 2nd: Click on the "gear" icon and choose "Format"

This little window will appear, just choose the option you want and click on Format...:

Answer 2

In Ubuntu there are many methods by which you can format your pendrive

1 - by Disk utility see the video // simplest way

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2- by Gparted tool see the video

// you can install it from Ubuntu software center or you can install is by typing

sudo apt-get install gparted

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3- by using Terminal see the video

go to super mode by typing "su" followed by super mode password

fdisk -l

that will show all the volume in your pc or you can also use the

df

to see the usb flash drive, suppose it may be /dev/sdb1

umount /dev/sdb1

that un mount the drive

mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

to format drive into fat32 format

EDIT

mkfs.vfat -n 'name_for_your_pendrive' -I /dev/sdb1

to add name for your pendrive

Answer 3

The Command-Line Way

In case you can't get your device formatted from the GUI, try this way.

1. Open the Terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T)

2. List your block storage devices by issuing the command lsblk
   Then identify your pen drive by it's SIZE. In my case its /dev/sdb

   

3. Erase everything in the pen drive (OPTIONAL):

   sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k && sync

   Replace /dev/sdb with your corresponding device. This will take some time. It will pretend to stuck. Just be patient.

for example:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k && sync
dd: error writing '/dev/sdb': No space left on device

1984257+0 records in
1984256+0 records out
8127512576 bytes (8.1 GB) copied, 1236.37 s, 6.6 MB/s

4. Make a new partition table in the device:

   sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

   • Then press letter o to create a new empty DOS partition table.

5. Make a new partition:

   • Press letter n to add a new partition. You will be prompted for the size of the partition. Making a primary partition when prompted, if you are not sure.

   • Then press letter w to write table to disk and exit.

6. Format your new partition.

   • See what is your new partition with a command lsblk
     In my case it is /dev/sdb1

   

   • Issue the command below to format the new volume:

     sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

     Please replace /dev/sdb1 with your corresponding device.

   • Eject the device:

     sudo eject /dev/sdb

Answer 4

gparted - the only way to go with formatting drives and HDs etc. It's available for download in the Ubuntu Software Center, just search for gparted.

Answer 5

Run the below commands to format the usb to fat32 filesystem from terminal,

sudo su
fdisk -l 

(this helps to discover your pendrive /dev/sdxx)

umount /dev/sdxx

then format your device to FAT32

mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdxx

Where "xx" is from the command fdisk -l which denotes your usb drive's last letters.

Answer 6

Here are some instruction :

• Plug your flash drive into an empty USB port and back up any data on the drive. Open the main menu, move your cursor over "Accessories" and then click on "Terminal." At the terminal prompt, type sudo apt-get install gparted and press Enter.
• Enter your Ubuntu administrator password when prompted and press Enter. This will download and install GParted, which is an open-source drive partitioning program
• Go to the Ubuntu main menu after the installation is complete, move your cursor over "System," select "Administration" and click "Partition Editor." Enter your administrator password when prompted and click "OK."
• Click on "GParted" in the toolbar. Hover over "Devices" and select your USB flash drive from the list (dev/sdb1, for example). Right-click on the device in the main GParted window and click "Unmount." It may take a few minutes for the device to be unmounted
• Right-click on the device again after it is unmounted and hover over "Format to." Select the desired file system type -- RiserFS, linux-swap, Ext 2, Ext 3, FAT16 or Fat32, for example -- and click "Apply" in the toolbar. Depending on the size of the flash drive, it will take three to four minutes for GParted to complete the process.
• Close GParted after the flash drive is formatted. To mount your USB flash drive, unplug it and then plug it back in. The drive is now ready to store data in the file format you selected.

Answer 7

sfdisk CLI non-interactive method

echo 'start=2048, type=83' | sudo sfdisk /dev/sdX
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1

erases all data, and creates a single partition that takes up all USB with an ext4 filesystem.

Choose X based on the output of:

sudo lsblk
sudo fdisk -l

For more detailed description of sfdisk see: https://superuser.com/questions/332252/creating-and-formating-a-partition-using-a-bash-script/1132834#1132834

fdisk automation

It is also possible to do the same as above with:

printf 'o\nn\np\n1\n\n\nw\n' | sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

but this method is less maintainable than sfdisk, which was designed for Scripting fdisk, specially if you want to create more complex partition tables.

Answer 8

if you are running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS then you can easily do this. just plug in your usb and in left panel you will see a USB icon. go over there and right click. there will be a option to format it.

Answer 9

Firstly use fdisk -l in order to see usb partition, then if:

ext == > mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
FAT/FAT32 ==> mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1

Note: You must be root or using sudo to do that.

Answer 10

Restore a USB drive to a standard storage device

Install and use mkusb (mkusb-dus), which can format alias restore a USB drive to a standard storage device (with an MSDOS partition table and a partition with the FAT32 file system). These instructions are also relevant for other drives (memory cards, hard disk drives, HDD, solid state drives, SSD).

If you run standard Ubuntu, you may need an extra instruction to get the repository Universe. (Kubuntu, Lubuntu ... Xubuntu have the repository Universe activated automatically.)

sudo add-apt-repository universe  # only for standard Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa  # and press Enter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mkusb mkusb-nox usb-pack-efi

See these links with more detailed instructions,

• mkUSB-quick-start-manual.pdf or if the link does not work, this alternate link

• help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

mkusb version 12 alias mkusb-dus:

mkusb wipes the first megabyte as a first step of restoring it

Sometimes some data are 'tricking' the software to think that the pendrive does not work, even when it is good, and it is enough to wipe the first megabyte to get rid of those data. You may 'look at' the drive with a tool, that does not recognize or understand correctly the structure of the boot system, for example if it was cloned from an iso file.

What to do if mkusb fails

There are many ways that a USB pendrive can fail. So it is worth trying different things. If mkusb fails, try according to this list,

• On some pendrives and on many memory cards there is a small mechanical switch for write protection, that can toggle between read/write and read-only. You might have set it read-only without intention.
• Reboot the computer and try again to restore or wipe the first megabyte with mkusb.
• Disconnect other USB devices. Sometimes USB devices can disturb the function for each other.
• Try other USB ports and another computer.
• Try another operating system (Windows, MacOS) in another computer.
• If you still cannot wipe the first megabyte of the drive, and the drive is read-only, it is probably 'gridlocked', and the next stage is that it will be completely 'bricked'.

There is a limit, when you have to accept that the pendrive is damaged beyond repair, at least with tools available to normal users like you and me. See this link

Pendrive lifetime

Answer 11

Here is a very simple way: In linux system: use fdisk to check which is your usb disk. then use fdisk sdx,usually is sdb, to do some operation on your usb disk.

press o enter press d enter to empty your disk.

then you can plug your usb drive to a windows operation system and do the normal format.

Answer 12

I use Startup Disk Creator, installed by default, to format my USB drives.

• Open up 'startup Disk Creator' by searching for it in the dash.
• Insert your flash drive, it will be detected automatically.
• Select it (in case you have more than one)
• Press 'Erase Disk'

See screenshot below:

Answer 13

Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter the following command

gksu palimpsest

after the disk manager comes up, follow the instructions in this video.

Answer 14

I faced this problem especially after the installation of Ubuntu, my USB drive just became no longer usable. I could only use around 1 GB of my 16 GB USB drive. When I entered lsblk command on the command line interface it only showed 1 GB part of the USB available but it did not show the rest 14.5 GB as an unavailable part. So I tried almost everything, I googled it, I looked on many Linux and Ubuntu helps sites and this StackExchange network as well. I could not figure out how to make my computer read my USB. Eventually, I created a partition on my USB by using GParted on Ubuntu. Open GParted and then GParted -> Devices -> /dev/sdb (14.56 GiB) in my case. I selected that and then go to Device -> Create Partition and then click on "Apply". After that, I unmounted and mounted back my USB. Then GParted -> Devices -> /dev/sdb on my case, and then Partition -> Format to -> fat32. I clicked on that and then click on the green tick symbol and then it will format. The similar command of that format in command line interface is I think mkfs.fat -F 32 -v -l -n. That was my case. I hope it will help. Please, ask the questions that you don't understand and you will hopefully get an answer, even if I cannot answer the gurus here will hopefully help you. Thank you, everybody. PS: I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

Edit: this happened to me 2nd time. I did the refreshing format not through Gparted but Disks. Thanks.