How to Format a Disk in Ubuntu

There are a number of file systems to choose from when formatting a hard disk.

Hard disks and other storage devices need to be formatted in order to work with a certain file system. Windows, for example, uses FAT and NTFS primarily, while Linux uses those, plus ext3, Sysfs, Procfs and more. If you have a new hard disk, or an external storage device (USB flash drive, SD card, external hard drive) that you want to format to any number of different file systems, you can do it in Ubuntu Linux using a standard Linux application.

Instructions

1. Plug in your disk and restart your computer. This gives the system the appropriate resources to identify the device you plugged in and its current file system.

2. Open a Terminal command line and type "sudo apt-get install gparted" followed by "Enter." This downloads and installs GParted, a Linux utility for formatting disks into a variety of file system formats.

3. Go to "System," then "Administration" and click "GParted." The program lists all installed hard disks, along with any partitions on your drives. Here you see the disk you installed in Step 1, its size, file format and where it is mounted on the system.

4. Right-click on the disk you want to format and hover over "Format To." This shows a list of file system types that you can format your disk to. Click on the desired file format and click the green check mark button in the middle of the tool bar menu. Click "OK" to begin formatting.

Tips & Warnings

• Formatting a disk erases all data. Make sure to save any important information elsewhere before following these steps.

References

• Cyber Citi: Linux: How to Determine the File System Type
• Ubuntu Documentation: Disks and Partitions

Resources

• Linux Journal