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I have created a bootable USB drive to install Lubuntu. Now I would like to format the drive so I can use it normally. How can I do that?

IanS
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Asad Moosvi
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  • possible duplicate of [How to format a USB or external drive?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/68809/how-to-format-a-usb-or-external-drive) – karel Aug 30 '14 at 13:17
  • see the dupe. also: 13.10 is end of life and AskUbuntu drops support for end of life releases at that moment. Please upgrade to 14.04 for support from AU. – Rinzwind Aug 30 '14 at 13:29
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    This is not a duplicate question because the link by karel provides solutions for standard Ubuntu, which require software additional to that shipped with the default Lubuntu package. – IanS Mar 24 '16 at 07:50

3 Answers3

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In Lubuntu the terminal might be the fastest way to format a USB drive.

Find the usb partition: lsblk

alvaro@GNUM4600:~$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0 457.9G  0 part /
├─sda2   8:2    0     1K  0 part 
└─sda5   8:5    0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb      8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 238.5G  0 part 
sdc      8:32   1   1.9G  0 disk /media/alvaro/68A2-E93E   <--------------- This is it *
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

Unmount it: umount /dev/sdc

alvaro@GNUM4600:~$ umount /dev/sdc

Make the file system on the entire device: sudo mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdc 

alvaro@GNUM4600:~$ sudo mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdc
Alvaro Gil
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There are several options, but assuming you want something "standard" - I would use mkfs.vfat /dev/[MY-USB-DRIVE]. You can run whatever FS you want on there, but vfat is what they usually ship with (e.g. will work on Windows).

Elliott Frisch
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use gparted

If it shows a lock next to the partition you'll need to unmount before removing it (right click - unmount)

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/17001/how-to-format-a-usb-drive-in-ubuntu-using-gparted/

derek kelly
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