In short, steps to create USB drive on Linux are: delete all, create partition, set partition type, mark it as active and write changes to disk. After new partition is created, with mkfs command it’s needed to create FAT32 file system. This may sound scary, but the only tricky part is to use correct device name (in my case it was sdg).
When USB drive is plugged, kernel will write lines to /var/log/message so it can be watched with “tail -f” or USB drive can be listed in “/dev/disk/by-id/” directory. Here is how to list symbolic links for mounted drives (drives can be listed by-path and by-uuid as well):
> ls -la /dev/disk/ > ls -la /dev/disk/by-id/
After USB drive was located, the next step is to delete all existing partitions. USB drive name should be checked twice because in your case it can be named differently. So, please be very careful otherwise you can lose valuable data from other partitions without (or minimal) chance to save them back.
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1. First list existing partitions (here is example of my 4GB USB drive):
> fdisk /dev/sdg Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdg: 3874 MB, 3874488320 bytes 42 heads, 8 sectors/track, 22521 cylinders, total 7567360 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0006301d Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdg1 2048 7567359 3782656 b W95 FAT32
2. Now partition 1 can be deleted and it will not be listed any more:
Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1 Partition 1 is deleted Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdg: 3874 MB, 3874488320 bytes 42 heads, 8 sectors/track, 22521 cylinders, total 7567360 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0006301d Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
3. After USB drive is wiped out, next step is to create a new primary partition:
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended
Select (default p):
Using default response p
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
Using default value 1
First sector (2048-7567359, default 2048):
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-7567359, default 7567359):
Using default value 7567359
Partition 1 of type Linux and of size 3,6 GiB is set
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdg: 3874 MB, 3874488320 bytes
42 heads, 8 sectors/track, 22521 cylinders, total 7567360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006301d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdg1 2048 7567359 3782656 83 Linux
4. By default, partition type will have id 83 (Linux) and this should be changed to FAT32. Type t command and set partition id as b (all partition codes can be listed with L command):
Command (m for help): t Selected partition 1 Hex code (type L to list codes): b Changed system type of partition 1 to b (W95 FAT32) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdg: 3874 MB, 3874488320 bytes 42 heads, 8 sectors/track, 22521 cylinders, total 7567360 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0006301d Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdg1 2048 7567359 3782656 b W95 FAT32
5. Partition should be set as active or USB drive will not be attached to the file-system when plugged in. To set active partition type in a command and choose first partition number:
Command (m for help): a Partition number (1-4): 1 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdg: 3874 MB, 3874488320 bytes 42 heads, 8 sectors/track, 22521 cylinders, total 7567360 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0006301d Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdg1 * 2048 7567359 3782656 b W95 FAT32
6. Write changes to disk and exit from fdisk utility
Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered!
7. Now FAT32 file-system can be created on USB drive from command line with mkfs (once again be sure that you typed in correct USB device name):
> mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdg1 mkfs.vfat 3.0.12 (29 Oct 2011)
8. Eject and reinsert USB drive, it should be empty and mounted. Here is df -hT output:
> df -HT Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on rootfs rootfs 30G 5,6G 23G 20% / devtmpfs devtmpfs 1,8G 0 1,8G 0% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 1,8G 868K 1,8G 1% /dev/shm tmpfs tmpfs 1,8G 1,3M 1,8G 1% /run /dev/sda1 ext2 30G 5,6G 23G 20% / tmpfs tmpfs 1,8G 0 1,8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs tmpfs 1,8G 0 1,8G 0% /media /dev/sdb5 ext4 204G 41G 153G 22% /home /dev/sdb1 ext4 20G 9,1G 9,7G 49% /var /dev/sdb3 ext4 4,0G 137M 3,7G 4% /tmp /dev/sdg1 vfat 3,7G 4,0K 3,7G 1% /run/media/dbunic/DF85-CAF4
Thx good work ;-)
well explanation. Thank you…
Saved my day
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot. You saved me.
thx a lot
Well explained
Proper command is:
mkfs -t vfat -F 32 /dev/sdg1
otherwise it will create old 16bit FAT.
If the partition is less than 4GB, mkfs -t vfat och mkfs.vfat creates an fat16 filesystem. Is the partition more than 4 GB, it creates fat 32.
From "man mkfs.vat": -F FAT-SIZE Specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32 bit). If nothing is specified, mkfs.fat will automatically select between 12, 16 and 32 bit, whatever fits better for the filesystem size.Worked like a champ.
Loaded a 128Gb USb 3.1 Drive for my music collection. Riding on my motorcycle with on-demand tunes when there is no internet is a must!!
Solid work, thank you.
Thank you, works like a charm.
I have a Windows 10 system. I followed the instructions to a tee and formatted (FAT32) a brand new M.2 SSD connected to my laptop’s second slot. (I worked from a Ubuntu live session off a USB pen drive.)
Now, the new SSD is seen by Windows and I can copy individual files from Windows C:\ to this SSD. However, when I try to copy a folder/directory to the SSD, I get a Windows error 0x800701B1 (“A device was does not exist was specified”).
When I try to fix the SSD using Windows chkdsk utility, I see the “chkdsk can’t work with raw drives” error”. Looks like Windows doesn’t understand the FAT32 partition correctly.
You can use cfdisk instead.
Concise and solid ! Thx
Just what I needed. Thank you.