On Sun, 31 May 2026 21:31:31 -0500 Gregory Forster <[email protected]> wrote:
> When I plug in a random USB flash drive, it's recognized in the file > manager and I can transfer files between the home sub-directories > back and forth with the flash drives. However, if I should format the > flash drive, it's no longer recognized in the file manager. How do I > get it to be recognized? > After formatting, you create a filesystem on it. The command line mkfs will allow you to do this, but it is much easier to use a graphical disc manager such as gparted. You will need root privileges to do this, and make very sure you know which drive you are modifying. It is easy to destroy your computer's operating system with careless use of a disc manager. You may want partitions on the drive, though USB sticks often do not use partitions and the whole drive is formatted with one filesystem. Using an MBR partition table allows partitions to use different filesystems, if you need that facility. The standard Linux filesystem is ext4, but a Windows computer may not be able to read this. The Windows NTFS file system can be read by all Windows versions since Win2000, and also Linux. Some other hardware that accepts USB sticks may only recognise the older Windows FAT formats, which again Windows and Linux can read, but is limited in file and partition size compared to the modern formats. https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/blog/personal-storage/understanding-file-systems Most of this applies to USB sticks and also SD and microSD cards. I use very few USB sticks nowadays, but mostly microSD cards in a USB adaptor. -- Joe
