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Vipin Verma
Asked: 2012-10-09 21:27:25 +0800 CST

How to format a USB drive? [duplicate]

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Possible Duplicate:
How to format a USB flash drive?
How do I clear everything (data, viruses) from a thumbdrive?

How to format a pen drive in Ubuntu?
I have this pen drive which I made bootable using some other system (OS).
But I need to format it from my Ubuntu 12.04. Please guide me.

usb-drive

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Method #1 (The Graphical Way)

    Open Disks program from dash:

    enter image description here

    Then choose your device from left. Make sure you have selected at least one volume, and click on format as below:

    enter image description here

    Method #2 (The Command-Line Way)

    In case you can't get your device formatted from Method #1 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

      enter image description here

    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.

    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

      enter image description here

      • 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
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  2. You can try the application called Disks Utility. It's a very handy utility which should let you format the disk, among other things. You can find it by pressing ALT + F2 and typing the name, or going to System > Administration, or I guess typing the name in unity dash.

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