Geekremark - Technology Updates & More

Formatting a USB flash drive can help fix various issues with a USB flash drive, such as corruption, file system errors, or malware infections. It provides a clean slate by erasing all data and resetting the drive to its default state.

In this blog post, we will guide you through a step-by-step approach to formatting a USB flash drive using the command prompt. Whether you need to fix a corrupted drive or simply want to prepare it for a specific purpose, mastering this technique will empower you to take full control of your USB drives. So, let's dive in and explore this powerful method that can enhance your storage management skills.

*Note: Formatting a USB flash device causes loss of data. So, if it is possible take a backup of the data.

This blog post is aimed at computer users who have basic familiarity with the Windows operating system and are interested in learning how to format a USB flash drive using the command prompt. No prior experience with command-line interfaces is required.

Step 1: Plug in the USB Flash Drive

Before we can proceed with formatting, ensure that you have inserted the USB flash drive into an available USB port on your computer. The drive should be recognized and assigned a drive letter.

Step 2: Open Command Prompt

To access the command prompt, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard.

2. Type "cmd" into the search bar.

3. Click on the "Command Prompt" app from the search results and Run as administrator.

Step 3: Launch Diskpart

Diskpart is a command-line disk partitioning utility included with Windows. Follow these steps to launch Diskpart:

1. In the command prompt window, type "diskpart" and press Enter.

2. If prompted for administrative permissions, click "Yes" to continue.

Step 4: List Available Drives

In the Diskpart utility, you need to identify the disk number of your USB flash drive. Execute the following commands:

1. Type "list disk" and press Enter.

2. Locate your USB flash drive in the list of disks. Note the corresponding disk number.

Step 5: Select the USB Flash Drive

To select the USB flash drive for formatting, execute the following command:

1. Type "select disk X" (replace X with the disk number of your USB flash drive) and press Enter.

2. A message confirming the selection will be displayed.

*type the disk number you want to format

Step 6: Clean the Disk

Cleaning the disk will remove all existing partitions and data. Enter the following command:

1. Type "clean" and press Enter.

2. Wait for the process to complete. You will see a "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk" message.

Step 7: Create a New Partition

To create a new partition on the USB flash drive, execute the following commands:

1. Type "create partition primary" and press Enter.

2. Wait for the process to complete. You will see a message indicating that the partition has been created.

Step 8: Format the Partition

Formatting the partition prepares it for use. Execute the following command:

1. Type "format fs=ntfs" and press Enter.

2. Wait for the formatting process to finish. This may take a few moments.

N.B: here in place of NTFS you can type fat32 to format the disk on FAT32.

(Also to speed up the process of formatting you can type “format fs=ntfs quick“)

Step 9: Assign a Drive Letter

To assign a drive letter to the newly formatted partition, execute the following command:

1. Type "assign letter=X" (replace X with the desired drive letter) and press Enter.

2. The drive letter will be assigned, and you can now access the USB flash drive using the chosen letter.

Conclusion:

By following these step-by-step instructions, you can easily format a USB flash drive using the command prompt. This method provides a powerful alternative to graphical interfaces, granting you greater control over the formatting process. Remember to exercise caution when formatting a drive, as it erases all data permanently. With your newly formatted USB flash drive, you'll be ready to store and transfer data efficiently.

Disclaimer: Formatting a USB flash drive will erase all data on the drive

LAMP stack is a set of open-source software which are used together to host a web application or website on the internet. The acronym of LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Apache is a widely used and secured server it is well documented and easy to use,
MySQL is an open-source relational database management system,
and PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language.

Because we are using MySQL we will also install phpMyAdmin, with this we can handle administration tasks, including creating a database, running queries, and adding user accounts very easily.

phpMyAdmin is a widely used, open-source administration tool for MySQL and MariaDB. With phpMyAdmin installed on your server, you can handle the database of your server very easily.

In this step-by-step tutorial, I will explain how to install the LAMP stack with phpMyAdmin on a Ubuntu Server.

Prerequisites

In order to complete this tutorial, you will need a Ubuntu server(Minimum Ubuntu 18.04), Access to the server via SSH (if you don’t have direct access), and a sudo-enabled user account with a basic firewall.

Latest Blog Posts