Format & Mount an usb drive in GNU/Linux [terminal]

Format and Mount usb drive in GNU/Linux

Tools/commands:

• lsblk
• parted
• df
• fdisk
• mkfs
• wipefs

1. check if which blcok devices used by usb (sd) [df -h, lsblk] eg:

a)

$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 7.2 GiB, 7736072192 bytes, 15109516 sectors
Disk model: DataTraveler 3.0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

b)

# lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    1  7.2G  0 disk
mmcblk0     179:0    0   15G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 14.7G  0 part /

2. wipe the entire usb –YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE USB’s DATA–

$ wipefs --all --force /dev/sda

3. create the partition by using parted

# parted /dev/sda

4. create partition table (gpt or msdos) you can check by “p” – further info about different labels here– eg:

$(parted) mklabel msdos

5. create the partition spanning the entire drive, and check by using “p”

(parted) mkpart primary fat32 0% 100%

(parted) p
Model: Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 7736MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  7735MB  7734MB  primary  fat32        lba

5. exit from parted [quit] and check the new partition on your system. eg:

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    1  7.2G  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    1  7.2G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0   15G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 14.7G  0 part /

6. build the filesystem by mkfs [mkfs.exfat -n usb /dev/sda1] eg:

# mkfs.exfat -n usb /dev/sda1
mkexfatfs 1.3.0
Creating... done.
Flushing... done.
File system created successfully.

6. create a folder where to mount the devices [mkdir /media/usb-drive]
7. finally mount the usb pointing the folder created [mount /dev/sda1 /media/usb-drive/]

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    1  7.2G  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    1  7.2G  0 part /media/usb-drive
mmcblk0     179:0    0   15G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 14.7G  0 part /

Now you have access to the usb by the path: /media/usb-drive/