How to Format Jump Drives in Linux

A Jump Drive is a USB drive.

Jump Drives are portable USB flash drives. To clear all files from your Jump Drive, you must format it. Jump Drives are compatible with Linux operating systems. Formatting a Jump Drive in Linux takes only a few minutes. Formatting is normally used to clean old files from a drive, prepare the drive for another user or prepare the drive to be used with a different operating system. All data will be erased from your drive when you format Jump Drives in Linux.

Instructions

1. Boot into Linux. This step is only for those with a dual boot system.

2. Open a terminal window or shell prompt. Depending on your version of Linux, either click the icon on your desktop or go to "Main Menu," select "System" and choose "Shell."

3. Type "tail -f /var/log/messages" and press "Enter."

4. Insert your Jump Drive.

5. Note the sdb device the drive was connected to. This will be in the format "sdb: sdb1" where sdb1 is the name of the device. This should be near the bottom of the system log.

6. Type the following to begin the formatting process: "~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb". Press "Enter."

7. Type "p" to view current partitions. Press "Enter."

8. Type "d" to delete a partition. You must run this command for each partition you have.

9. Type "n" to create a new partition.

10. Type "1" and press "Enter" twice to accept the defaults.

11. Type "w" to apply all changes. Press "Enter."

12. Convert the Jump Drive's file system to FAT16 by typing the following: "~$ sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb1"" Substitute the device name for "sdb1".

Tips & Warnings

• The FAT16 file format will work across all operating system platforms for storing files.

• Back up all data from your Jump Drive before formatting. You will not be able to recover data erased during the formatting process.

References

• Dot Kam: Restore/Format USB Flash Drive
• Dot Kam: Find USB Flash Drive Device in Linux