How to Format a USB Drive in Ubuntu: 3 Step-by-Step Methods

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Reformat a USB stick using the Disks utility, GParted, or Terminal
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Ubuntu Linux has several utilities for formatting your USB drive. To use a GUI interface, try the Disks utility that comes with Ubuntu or a free alternative called GParted . You can also format a USB stick using terminal commands . Read on to learn how to format a USB drive in Ubuntu Linux to exFAT, ext4, ext3, NTFS, and virtually any other filesystem format.

Quick Steps

  1. Open the Disks tool.
  2. Select your USB flash drive.
  3. Click the gear button and select Format Partition…
  4. Enter a name and toggle on the "Erase" switch.
  5. Select a filesystem (e.g., exFAT or EXT4 ).
  6. Click Next > Format to erase and reformat the drive.
Section 1 of 4:

Using the Disks Utility

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  1. 1
    Open the Disks utility. To open Ubuntu's built-in disk management tool, open Activities view, search for disks , and click Disks in the search results. [1]
  2. 2
    Install the exFAT utilities if you want to format the drive as exFAT (optional). You can use this graphical utility to format a flash drive on Ubuntu, but you can't format it using the exFAT filesystem (which works seamlessly across Linux, Windows, and Mac without file size limits) without installing some tools first. You can skip this step if you don't mind formatting in FAT32 (which is still cross-compatible) or another file system. Otherwise:
    • Press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a terminal window.
    • Type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfatprogs and press Enter .
      • If you're using Ubuntu 20.04 or earlier, use sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils instead.
    • Press Y when prompted to confirm.
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  3. Its details will appear in the right frame. [2]
  4. Most USB drives will only have one volume, but if yours has multiple volumes, you can select one or all of them.
  5. The button is below the "Volumes" section. This will open the formatting options.
  6. 6
    Choose how to format your USB flash drive. On the "Format Volume" menu, you'll see several options. [3]
    • Next to "Volume name," type a name for your USB stick.
    • To completely reformat the drive, toggle on the "Erase" switch.
    • Choose the file system type. If you want to use your flash drive to transfer files between this Linux PC and other operating systems, including macOS and Windows, you have some options:
      • One is to select FAT , which allows you to transfer files between operating systems, but has a 4 GB file size limit.
      • If you want to transfer very large files between operating systems, select Other , then choose exFAT .
      • If you only want to use the USB stick with Linux, you can format it as ext4 .
  7. This erases the files from your USB stick and formats it using the details you selected.
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Section 2 of 4:

Using GParted

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  1. 1
    Install GParted for Ubuntu. GParted is another GUI disk management application you can use to format a pen drive and other media in Linux. To install GParted on Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions: [4]
    • Open a Terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T .
    • Type sudo apt update and press Enter .
    • Enter your password.
    • Type sudo apt install gparted -y and press Enter .
  2. 2
    Install exFAT formatting utilities (optional). If you want to format the drive as exFAT so it's compatible with multiple operating systems (including Windows & Mac) and doesn't have any file size limitations, you will need to install some extra tools. You can skip this step if you don't care about exFAT, but if you do, here's how to get those utilities:
    • On Ubuntu 22.04 and later, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfatprogs and press Enter .
    • On Ubuntu 20.04 and earlier, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils and press Enter .
    • Press Y when prompted to confirm.
  3. 3
    Open GParted. Now that GParted is installed, you will find it in your Applications menu. Alternatively, you can open GParted from the terminal window that's already open–just type gparted & and press Enter to do it.
  4. 4
    Select your flash drive. Click the menu at the upper-right corner of GParted and select the USB flash drive you want to format.
    • If the drive is mounted, you will need to unmount it first.
  5. 5
    Right-click the drive and select Format to . Several filesystem options will expand.
  6. 6
    Choose a filesystem. If you plan to use this flash drive to transfer files between Linux, Windows, and/or macOS, select exFAT . If you only want to use the drive with this system, you can opt for ext4 . [5]
  7. 7
    Click the green checkmark button and confirm. It's at the top of GParted. Once you confirm, your USB drive will be reformatted in the filesystem type you selected.
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Section 3 of 4:

Using Terminal Commands

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  1. You can also format a USB flash drive using some quick terminal commands. You can open the terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T .
  2. 2
    Type . lsblk -f and press ↵ Enter . This will display a list of storage devices attached to the computer, as well as the name of each of their mount points.
  3. 3
    Identify your USB drive. Use the SIZE column to find your USB drive in the list, and make note of what it's called in the "NAME" column.
    • For example, you might see sdb1 in the name column. This means your USB drive's location is /dev/sdb1.
  4. If the drive is mounted (you will see a mount point, if so), you'll want to unmount it before formatting it. You'll need to unmount the drive before formatting. Type the following command, and replace sdb1 with your USB drive's partition label.
    • Type sudo umount /dev/sdb(number) , but replace "sdb(number)" with the mount point you noted in the previous step.
    • Press Enter .
  5. 5
    Install exFAT formatting utilities (optional). If you want to format the drive as exFAT so it's compatible with multiple operating systems (including Windows & Mac) and doesn't have any file size limitations, you will need to install some extra tools. You can skip this step if you want to format the flash drive as FAT32 , ext4 , or most other formats.
    • On Ubuntu 22.04 and later, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfatprogs and press Enter .
    • On Ubuntu 20.04 and earlier, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils and press Enter .
    • Press Y when prompted to confirm.
  6. 6
    Format the drive using the mkfs command. [6]
    • To use this command, you'll want to determine which filesystem to use on your pen drive.
      • If you want the USB drive to work on Linux, Windows, and Mac, exFAT is the best option.
      • If you only plan to use the USB drive on Linux, you can opt for ext4 .
      • You can also format the drive in other common formats, including ntfs , fat32 , ext3 , ext2 , and vfat .
    • Enter the command mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb(number) . Replace "mkfs.exfat" with your preferred filesystem, e.g., mkfs.ext4 , and /dev/sdb(number) with the path to your USB flash drive.
  7. Once the format is complete, you can safely eject your USB flash drive.
    • sudo eject /dev/sdb
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Section 4 of 4:

FAQ

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  1. 1
    Can Ubuntu format FAT32? Yes. You can format a drive as FAT32 in Ubuntu so it will be compatible with commercial operating systems like Windows and macOS. However, unless you're using a much older version of Windows or Mac, it's usually better to format as exFAT, as it doesn't have file size limits.
  2. 2
    How do you format a USB drive to NTFS on Ubuntu? If you format a drive to NTFS in Ubuntu, the drive will only be compatible with Windows PCs. If that's okay with you, open the Disks utility, select your USB drive, click the gear, and select Format Partitions . Choose "NFTS" as the filesystem type.
  3. 3
    How do you format a drive as exFAT on Ubuntu? You can format a drive as exFAT in the Ubuntu Disks tool. Select the volume you want to format, click the gear, select Format Partition , select Other as the format type, and then choose exFAT from the menu.
  4. 4
    Can Linux read exFAT formatted USB drives? The exFAT format is supported in Linux, Windows, and macOS.
  5. 5
    Why can't I format a drive as exFAT in Ubuntu? You will need to install some extra utilities in Ubuntu, as the ability to format in exFAT isn't preinstalled. In a terminal, run the following command:
    • On Ubuntu 22.04 and later, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfatprogs and press Enter .
    • On Ubuntu 20.04 and earlier, type sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils and press Enter .
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    There is no option for format. What do I do?
    Community Answer
    Look for a formatting tool online for that brand.
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  • Question
    What do I do if the steps complete successfully, but the pendrive is not showing?
    Community Answer
    I got the same issue then I followed these steps and now Pen drive is showing. Instead of selecting the option"compatible with all systems," select FORMAT DISK->PARTITIONING->No Partitioning(Empty). Go to Settings ->Format Partition.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
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  • Question
    What do I do if I formatted my pen drive and I can't access it?
    Ashish Kumar
    Community Answer
    Click new partition to use it and select FAT to work on both Windows and Linux.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/disk-partitions.html.en
      2. ↑ https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/disk-partitions.html.en
      3. ↑ https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/disk-format.html.en
      4. ↑ https://gparted.org/download.php
      5. ↑ https://gparted.org/display-doc.php?name=help-manual#gparted-specify-partition-file-system
      6. ↑ https://devconnected.com/how-to-format-disk-partitions-on-linux/#Format_a_Disk_using_FAT32_filesystems

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      1. Click the dashboard button and search for "Disks."
      2. Double-click Disks .
      3. Select your USB drive.
      4. Select at least one volume.
      5. Click Format .
      6. Select a format option.
      7. Select a file system.
      8. Click Format .

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        May 30, 2017

        "Amazing tutorial. I followed step by step (Method 2 Terminal) and my Pen Drive came back to life, which wasn't ..." more
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