Reformat Bootable Flashdrive in Ubuntu

The commands and procedure described in this article have been executed on an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system.

Format USB Drive Through the Command Line

Formatting a USB drive is very simple through the command line. Even a beginner can format a USB drive through the simple process and commands we are describing here.

1. The first step is to identify the USB drive correctly in order to avoid formatting any other drive by accident. Open the Terminal application through the Dash or through the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut and enter the following command:

$ df -h

The last line in the output lists /dev/sdb1 as our USB drive.

2. Use the following command in order to format the USB as per the VFAT file system:

$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

You will be using the location as per the output you got from the df -h command.

3. You can only format an unmounted USB drive, otherwise, you will get the following message:

Therefore, please unmount the drive through the following command:

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1

Credit : https://vitux.com/how-to-format-a-usb-drive-in-ubuntu/


This is for personal documentation purposes.