I can get ready to format a drive in about ten seconds in Windows, even faster than that in DOS..

[Fumesucker]

I've now spent nearly two hours in Ubuntu trying to figure out how to format a USB drive..

The Ubuntu Software Center tells me I have Disk Utility installed but search as I might I cannot find it on my system, every reference I can find through Google eventually devolves into some incomprehensible gobbledegeek which might as well be in Minoan as far as my ability to get anything out of it.

I'm not even going into trying to get a DOS box running for some old legacy software I use sometimes because it just does the particular job I need.

I've been doing computers since before the days of DOS and maybe Linux is just beyond my geek tolerance level.

[Syrinx]

1. try running gparted from a terminal

Last edited Mon Jan 2, 2012, 06:17 AM - Edit history (1)

If that doesn't work, do "sudo apt-get install gparted".

Then run gparted either from your menu, or from the command line.

Then select the device from the pull-down list on the top-right. You'll probably be able to recognize the device by its size.

Then, in the main list, right-click on all partitions, and select "delete."

Then you should have one entry in the list... "unallocated space." Right-click on that, and choose "Format to."

If you want to be able to read the drive from Windows, you should probably chose FAT32. Otherwise, ext3 is probably your best bet.

Then click on EDIT --> Apply All Operations.

Hope that helps!

[HopeHoops]

2. Why format it? They come pre-formatted.

I've used the same USB drives in Win(whatever), Mac, and Linux boxes. It's seamless.

What's the reason for wanting to format it in ANY operating system?

[Fumesucker]

3. It's an mp3 player and just erasing the files doesn't hide them from the player search function.

I had a couple of podcasts to put on it and didn't want anything else, I erased all the previous files and then I put the podcasts on and everything else that didn't get overwritten is still there as far as the player is concerned but not the computer.

In other words, files that the computer tells me aren't there are nonetheless showing up when I turn on the player, then I have to slog through hundreds of tunes to get to what I want. It's a tiny cheap two gig player but it serves my purposes usually, I just tried to do something different with it and found a problem I hadn't run into before.

[a2liberal]

4. Just guessing here but

I would think that deleting ALL the files (not just all the songs) off that drive would accomplish the same thing (mp3 player probably keeps an index file somewhere). Sorry I can't help on the actual question.. I don't know the GUI way to do it. I could tell you how to do it from the command-line if you're comfortable with that but then you have to be 100% sure you know which device (sdc, sdd, sde, etc.) it is to avoid formatting the wrong thing.

[Syrinx]

5. CTRL-H

The file manager on Ubuntu will show the hidden files when you hit CTRL-H. I remember I had a similar problem with a 8GB USB drive once. It seemed to be empty, but I ran out of space when trying to copy 3GB of files. It turned out that when I "deleted" files from the drive, they weren't really deleted, but rather moved to a local trashcan or recycle-bin, or whatever. IOW, the files were still there, just hidden from view.

So type CTRL-H, and see if that helps.

[HopeHoops]

6. Weird. Have you tried a Win or Mac format?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

7. Which Ubuntu? 11.04 ( I think earlier versions also ) have Disk Utility already installed.

System / Administration / Disk Utility

Plug in USB drive and watch for "Peripheral Devices" pop up. Single click on it and on the right it list things to do... Look for Format Volume (bottom right corner) and not Format Drive.

Hope this helps