How to Format a USB Flash Drive in Ubuntu

EXT3 and EXT4 are the latest versions of the EXT filesystem.

Formatting a universal serial bus flash drive is the same as formatting a hard disk drive; the process clears all data from the device and installs a filesystem, used to structure files on the drive. In Ubuntu, the supported filesystem is extended file system; in Windows, it's file allocation table or new technology file system. You can format a flash drive in Disk Utility or GParted -- two of the most popular programs used to manage disks in Ubuntu -- and install any of these filesystems on the device.

Using GParted

Step 1

Press "Alt-F2." Enter "sudo apt-get install gparted" -- without quotes -- into the dialog box.

Step 2

Select "Run in Terminal" and then click "Run." Type your password, when prompted, and then press "Enter" to install GParted to Ubuntu.

Step 3

Click "System." Point to "Administration" and then click "GParted." Enter your administrative credentials and then click "OK."

Step 4

Select your USB flash drive from the drop-down menu. Right-click the unallocated space and then click "New."

Step 5

Select from the File System drop-down menu "FAT" or "NTFS" to use the drive with Windows; select "EXT3" or "EXT4" to use the drive with Linux.

Step 6

Name the new partition. Enter the desired size for the partition into the New Size field, if desired, or use the entire disk.

Step 7

Click "Add." Click the green checkmark and then click "Apply" to format the USB Flash Drive.

Step 8

Click "Close" when the message "All Operations Successfully Completed" appears.

Using Disk Utility

Step 1

Click "System." Point to "Administration." Click "Disk Utility."

Step 2

Select the USB flash drive from the left pane. Select "Format Volume" from the right pane.

Step 3

Select "FAT" or "NTFS" to format the volume for use with Windows. Select "EXT3" or "EXT4" to format the volume for use with Linux.

Step 4

Name the new volume and then click "Format" to format the flash drive.

Tips

• You can also open Terminal by clicking "Applications," "Accessories," then "Terminal," or by opening Dash, typing "Terminal," and then selecting "Terminal" from the results.
• You can also access Disk Utility by opening Dash, typing "disk" and then selecting "Disk Utility" from the results.

References