Monday, June 18, 2007

How to format your flash drive

This is how you can format your flash drive(thumbdrive, pendrive) in any linux machine

1. To see what is the filesystem for your flashdrive
  • type -> df



2. Type -> mkfs /dev/sdb1
(The /dev/sdb1 is according to your outcome of the df command previously: refer above diagram)
This command will format the flash drive to ext3 format which is the default.
To format it to fat;
type -> mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb1
at

11 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2008

    Blackorga,

    What's the difference if we command direcly the "mkfs -t vfat /dev/"device" to format the flash drive?

    ReplyDelete
  2. blackorgaSeptember 15, 2008

    You can use "mkfs" to format the drive to ext3 and use "mkfs -t vfat" to format the drive to fat32

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 23, 2008

    hi,

    this is a complete page on the topic..

    http://www.ehow.com/how_1000631_hard-drive-linux.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. blackorgaNovember 02, 2008

    Thanks ankursworld :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Branded USB SticksMay 04, 2010

    Its hard to find the quality post but you have done a nice job buddy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 17, 2010

    Very useful. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. reevasmithJuly 30, 2010

    Useful information!!! I guess this video can help you out, check out USB Protection

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousSeptember 30, 2010

    Can you explain why my OS is asking me to unmount first before formatting.Can' it format when the drive is formatted.Anyway great post,thanks a lot

    ReplyDelete
  9. raxNovember 30, 2010

    You really did a great job on that! useful content for people.Linux Flash Drive

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousDecember 24, 2010

    Thanks for the help!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousMay 06, 2013

    #1. fdisk -l
    #2. umount /dev/sdc1
    #3. mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1

    ReplyDelete