How to Format a Hard Drive on Ubuntu

You can format the drive using the Disks utility that comes pre-installed on Ubuntu. If the Disks utility reports an error or the partition is damaged, you can use GParted to format it. In addition, GParted can also resize existing partitions, allowing you to create additional partitions from an empty drive.

Perform Quick Format

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Open the Disks program. You can find it quickly by opening Dash and typing disks. All drives connected to the computer will appear on the left side of the window.

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Select the drive you want to format. All drives will be in the left pane. Be careful when choosing a drive because all data on the partition will be erased when you format it.

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Click the Gear button and select "Format Partition". A new window for configuring the file system opens.

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Select the file system you want to use. Click the "Type" menu and select the file system you want to use.

If you want to use the drive to transfer files between Linux, Mac, Windows computers or most devices that support USB storage, select "FAT."

If you only use the drive on a Linux computer, select "Ext4."

If you only use the drive on Windows, select "NTFS."

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Name the disk cell capacity. You can enter a label for the formatted drive capacity in the blank data field. This will help you identify the drive.

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You can choose to delete securely or not. By default, formatting erases but does not overwrite data on the drive. If you want to securely erase content, select "Overwrite existing data with zeroes" from the "Erase" menu. This format option takes longer, but it will be more secure.

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Click the "Format" button to get started. You will be asked to confirm before proceeding. Formatting will take a long time for large drives or when you select the secure erase option.

If you have difficulty formatting the drive, use GParted in the next step.

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Mount the drive after formatting. After formatting the drive, click the "Mount" button that appears under the Volumes graph. The partition will be mounted and you will be able to access the filesystem for storage. Click the link that appears to open the drive in a file browser, or open the Files program and find the drive in the left pane.

Use GParted

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Open Terminal. You can open Terminal from Dash, or press Ctrl+ Alt+ T.

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Install GParted. Enter the following command to install GParted. You will be asked to enter your user password, which will not appear as you enter it:

sudo apt-get install gparted

Press the key Ywhen asked to continue.

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Launch GParted from Dash. Open Dash and type "gparted" to find GParted Partition Editor." You will see a bar representing the current drive partition and the free space on it.

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Select the drive you want to format. Click the drop-down menu in the upper right corner to select the drive you want to format. If you can't tell the difference, look at the drive size to determine.

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Unmount the partition you want to change or delete. To make changes in GParted, you need to unmount the partition first. Right-click the partition in the list or chart and select "Unmount".

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Delete existing partition. The partition will be deleted and converted to unknown partition. You can then create a new partition from this and format the drive using the filesystem.

Right-click the partition you want to delete and click "Delete".

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Create new partition. After deleting the partition, right-click on the unknown part and select "New". The process of creating a new partition will begin.

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Choose partition size. When you create a new partition, you can use the slider to choose how much space you want to assign to that partition.

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Select the partition's file system. Use the "File system" menu to choose a format for the partition. If you plan to use the drive for multiple operating systems and devices, select "fat32". If you only use the drive in Linux, select "ext4."

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Name the partition. This will help you easily identify partitions on the system.

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Click "Add" when finished configuring the partition. The partition will be added to the execution queue at the bottom of the screen.

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Resize the partition (optional). One of the features of Gparted is resizing partitions. Resizing a partition will create space so you can create new partitions. Basically, this allows you to divide the drive into multiple parts without affecting the data on it.

Right-click the partition you want to resize and select "Resize/Move".

Drag the edges of the partition to create an empty drive first and then.

Click "Resize/Move" to confirm the changes. You need to create a new partition from the unknown part according to the instructions above.

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Click the green check mark to start applying the change. No changes will be applied to the drive until you click this button. After clicking, all partitions that you set to delete will be deleted along with all the data on them. You need to be sure about everything before proceeding.

It may take a while to complete all the processes, especially if you are working with multiple partitions or large drives.

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Find the drive you just formatted. Once the formatting process is complete, you can close GParted and find the drive in the Files program's drive list.