[PLASMA 5] Format an USB drive

[Grahm]

Hi, I use 20.04. I tried to format a Linux Mint 20 USB through Dolphin. There was no option at all. Then I tried the KDE partition manager. It has no option to delete or format the USB. I used " Discover " and then installed GParted. Which allowed me to format the partition in NTFS ( as I needed to deal with a 5.6 GB file ). Now I have the USB with 100 % free space. But I am confused how to format it if I need to do it again. Do we have an option for it in Dolphin ?

Or I will have to use Gparted every time I need to format it ?

Any help will be great.

[sithlord48]

No option for dolphin
Use the KDE Partition manager or Gparted they both use the same back end tools

[jglen490]

That's what Gparted is for - create and manage partition tables, partitions, and filesystems. And it does it very well, but you could always try your hand with fdisk and mkfs on the command line.

What puzzles me is the confluence of Linux Mint 20 and a 5.6 GB file. Are you trying to do both? or are they separate actions?

NTFS is not necessarily the best/or only solution for large files, there is also exfat, which is like fat32 but it handles large size individual files. And exfat is easy to install.

Might want to consider having a few USB thumb drives around; some smallish (2GB), some larger (8GB), some big (128GB). Keep a couple as exfat, and the rest fat32. They will be forever useful, once they are setup.

[mr_raider]

There is no "format" option in KDE partition manager or Gparted for thatmatter.

A USB that has been written to be a liveUSB is somewhat of a special animal. The proper way to destroy the live USB is to delete the partitions one y one, the re-create an msdos partition table. You can then create a new partition that takes the whole blank USB and set it's type as fat32, which is what most USB keys use.

[Grahm]

Thanks all for the replies.

@jglen490 I wanted to free that USB so that I could handle a big file. Yes, they are different things in my to-do list.

@KDE Partition Manager didn't work for me in this case. No delete partition option as well

Gparted did show a format option for me, where I chose NTFS. I have never used exFAT before. I would need the USB drive to be detected by Android TV. NTFS used to work fine so far. That is the reason I chose it.

[jglen490]

Format is a check box in the filesystem selection dialog, in Gparted. I'm pretty sure it's the same with KDE Partition Manager

[Grahm]

I checked now after inserting the USB and opening it through Dolphin. KDE Partition Manager shows no option to Format.

[mr_raider]

It's not called "format", but the function is there. This what a Live USB looks like

[Grahm]

I did see " New Partition Table ". But when I click it, just as the above post shows, there is no option to choose a file system.

[mr_raider]

I did see " New Partition Table ". But when I click it, just as the above post shows, there is no option to choose a file system.

You chose ms-dos. That will wipe the key. Then create a new partition and set it to fat32.

When a key is formatted as a liveusb, it creates a hybrid partition table to fool the PC into booting it like a CD.

[claydoh]

Quick and crappy but should give the idea.
Gparted will be similar.

[Grahm]

Great. I got so used to the right-click > format option in the file explorer. Doesn't matter, as long as it works, the KDE Partition Manager method is also creative.

[mr_raider]

Great. I got so used to the right-click > format option in the file explorer. Doesn't matter, as long as it works, the KDE Partition Manager method is also creative.

Just be careful. A lot older devices can't read gpt partitioned USB keys.

[Grahm]

Thanks. I will keep that in mind

[oshunluvr]

Formatting a drive is not considered a "File Manager" action by the developers. However, with little effort you could create a small script to launch the partition manager and Dolphin service menu AND add it to Device Actions of the Device Notifier.