Who does not have a flash memory USB drive? (128Mb – 16Gb…) Everybody does, even my dog, if I had one, would have it. However, sometimes these little dongles can be tricky to use if they are not properly formatted. The usual format for the flash memory USB drive is FAT16, and it is understood by many operating systems with no problem. But in case the drive is not formatted properly/or you think it is not formatted properly, you can always reformat it, and here is how.
The whole process consists of 5 steps ans takes about 15 seconds um.. if do it slowly.. 
In case you need to find the actual device your USB drive was associated with look here “Find USB flash device/drive in Linux“
WARNING: All the data will be lost from the flash UBS drive since we are going to reformat it.
We are going to use fdisk utility, so “for starters” here are available commands that you can use with fdisk:
a - toggle a bootable flag
b - edit bsd disklabel
c – toggle the dos compatibility flag
d – delete a partition
l – list known partition types
m – print this menu
n – add a new partition
o – create a new empty DOS partition table
p – print the partition table
q – quit without saving changes
s – create a new empty Sun disklabel
t – change a partition’s system id
u – change display/entry units
v – verify the partition table
w – write table to disk and exit
x – extra functionality (experts only)
Now let’s get to cooking a new and fresh flash memory USB drive…
Step 1. Run fdisk via sudo on your USB flash drive device:
user@host:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
enter “p” command to list current partition table of the USB drive:
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb: 1039 MB, 1039663104 bytes 32 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1984 * 512 = 1015808 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf1f494df Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 1023 1014785 83 Linux
Here you will see whatever partition (if any) currently present. In my case (above) it is a “Linux” partition, in your case it may be something different. But it does not really matter, because we are going to delete it anyway:
Step 2. Enter “d” command to delete existing partition (if you have any). If you have several, delete several by using”d” command multiple times:
Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1
Step 3. Now let’s get to business and enter “n” command to create a new partition:
Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-1023, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1023, default 1023): Using default value 1023
As you can see from above, I entered “1” for “Partition number”, and hit enter key twice to leave everything by default.
Now let us list current partitions with “p” command again:
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb: 1039 MB, 1039663104 bytes 32 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1984 * 512 = 1015808 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf1f494df Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 1023 1014785 83 Linux
We have a single “Linux” partition which is fine (for now).
Step 4. Time to actually apply our changes, so enter a “w” command that will write out all the changes to the USB drive.
Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks.
fdisk will write all the changes to the USB drive and exit. But we are not done yet. Our goal is to make a (in this case) FAT16 partition, so this USB drive can be read by most operating systems.
Step 5. For that we will use mkfs.vfat utility:
user@host:~$ sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb1 mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
Now we are good to go! It was easy, as I promised
Let’s look at the new USB drive now. Mounting it first:
user@host:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/flashka/ user@host:~$ cd /mnt/flashka/ user@host:/mnt/flashka$ ls -l total 0
Checking what it has under the hood:
user@host:/mnt/flashka$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sdb1 991M 0 991M 0% /mnt/flashka user@host:/mnt/flashka$
It has 991Mb which is what they call 1Gb flash memory USB drive!
Excellent way to restore any USB drive! I just went through all the steps with my old 128Mb flash that I could not use before, and it worked! Woohoo – thank you!
Great tutorial..This is very nice website.
Bookmarking it.
Thanks !!
thanks for tuto
im having a problem here
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb1
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
/dev/sdb1: No such file or directory
i try
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb
but it show
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
mkfs.vfat: Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device ‘/dev/sdb’ (use -I if wanted)
You can also try using GParted if you don’t like using the command line.
i have use GParted
but its show “Error while setting new disklabel” hen i try to create partition “msdos”
HideYourTracks.org,
It seems like you did not complete steps before “sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb”, which is the last step in the tutorial above (btw – nice tutorial
).
I did not have any problems with my 2Gb ScanDisk Thumb Drive.
Thanks,
J
Is there a way to format it as ntfs?
Thanks For You
thx =)
I am so very distressed as to usb flash drives. I made a mistake in thinking that I knew what I was doing and tried quick format but no joy. I have (2) 16GB flash drives, a Kingston, and a Standard. Both show up on My Computer, both will load files(music in my case) and you can play back, move, etc, but it does not retain all of them! If I load 6-8 GB on either, remove it from port, reinsert then some of the material is gone(empty) I am 71 years old, this is my 1st PC have had for 2 years. I share music with family and freinds all over the South in 7 states. I have the following HD devices:200GB Western Digital; 750GB Western Digital;1.5Terabyte Seagate. I have given away my two 4GB units to family with small children loaded with Baby Einstein, and Leapfrog programs for the kids and bought (2) 16GB’s to send to others with music, family photos(my Mother is 91 years old and I sort of keep everyone in touch) I also have a LaCie 20GB, and a new Verbatim 160GB usb both of which work just fine, but the two 16’s will not retain data, and when I sent to cousin, brother they files were blank or not downloadable. I will pay for someone to do what needs to be done as I have tried everything that I know of and am so frustrated. Please advise as I now apologize for being so “windy” and long in explanation.
With Best Personal Regards
Bill Michau
Darlington, S.C.
Bill,
I am not sure what causing your problem. It also seems like you are using MS Windows, however the above article describes how to reformat flash on Linux (great article btw – thanks!). But maybe this will start you off: Causes of Data Loss.
I didn’t get it at all. Is it for a Mac OS X computer?
I forgot to add that my flash drive icon will not show up on the desktop. Could you help me?