1. To find out the USB device name run fdisk -l
In this case my stick is /dev/sdb1
2. Make sure the memory stick isn’t mounted. To unmount run umount /dev/sdb1
3. To format with ext3 filesystem run mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
4. To label your stick run e2label /dev/sdb1
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muchisimas gracias, era lo que necesitaba para formatear un disco de 250Gb con ext3
By: John on January 12, 2008
at 4:02
Thank you, just what I needed.
By: MTX on August 18, 2008
at 17:11
perfect, the “security” (root) was “deleted” when i used the terminal but the USB flash drive still had data on it.
I formated it using the formating tool on XP (right click on the disck => format) and it worked. Thx a lot for the help. Im a new user of linux and i really appreciate its capacity to “solve” problems:)
hope i was clear!!
By: mike on October 3, 2008
at 1:14
Thanks man, simple and efficient.
By: the_rainbow on December 29, 2008
at 13:53
Watch out! see “http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_Damage_a_FLASH_Storage_Device” for why this is a bad idea for a disk which will get heavy use.
By: Jameson Quinn on March 3, 2009
at 20:39
oh well… those sticks are like a couple of bucks for a 4 or 8 Gigs version. I wouldnt worry too much if not for the data on them, but hey, that should be backed up in the first place before messing with these sticks LOL 🙂
By: Marcel on March 17, 2009
at 11:12
Hi,
I got a Toshiba 4GB stick as a present. I deleted all the files in it. When I mount it I get two devices: Toshiba and U3 system. U3 system has three files in it. U3Lauchpad.zip, autorun.inf and launchU3.exe. What ever I do I can not erase them. When I tried to format it I get “Read-only file system while setting up superblock” message when I give “mkfs.ext3 /dev/scd1” command. How can I have a clean stick just to use in Linux?
Many thanks
By: Osman Kemal KadiroÄŸlu on April 15, 2009
at 21:44
You should be using sudo
“sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/scd1”
By: MainstreamIT on June 27, 2012
at 9:50
Is there a particular reason you’re formatting your USB key in ext3? Machines running Windows aren’t natively able to access ext3 partitions, and your device is going to lose space and slow down because ext3 is a journaled file system.
@Osman: Try wiping all the partitions on the device before you create a new file system. See if my post helps:
http://www.bytetrap.com/blog/2009/04/13/formatting-usb-stick-arch-linux/
By: Ryan Coyner on April 20, 2009
at 4:46
Thanks, works great.
Reason #1 for using a ext3 stick is file names.
FAT sticks can’t handle upper and lower case.
Reason #2 is security, Windows people can’t read you files
Reason #3, related to #2, is you now have file permission settings available to you.
By: Trish on January 9, 2010
at 4:24
Here is a command line method to format a usb in linux http://blog.sriunplugged.com/linux/how-to-format-a-usb-in-linux/
By: R.Srijith on January 14, 2010
at 5:18
there is a graphical tool developed to format usb/flash stick/memory in linux, its easy to use and install please check this link
http://cha-wares.blogspot.com/
enjoy!
By: charlie maere on March 1, 2010
at 9:14
[…] https://nikste.wordpress.com/2007/01/12/how-to-format-usb-memory-stick-in-linux/ […]
By: How to format USB drive in Linux? « Search for Knowledge! on September 29, 2010
at 0:07
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By: How to format USB memory stick in Linux « We are of the Coke on September 21, 2011
at 22:46
i have a Iball 8 gb pen drive when i try to format, it shows a massage “can not formatted the disk is write protected” i use many tricks but fails.please tell me how i formate it.?
operating system windows 7, & windows xp
By: tamseel ali on April 26, 2012
at 17:55