How to Format a USB Flash Drive in Ubuntu

USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drives are rewritable storage devices designed to be portable and easy to use. Flash drives are typically formatted by default with Windows file formats like FAT16/32. Since Ubuntu Linux users tend to prefer native Linux file formats like RiserFS or Ext 2/3, formatting the drive before storing data on it is a good idea. Follow these steps to format a USB flash drive in Ubuntu.

1. Step 1

   Plug your flash drive into an empty USB port, then back up any data on the drive. Open the main menu, move your cursor over "Accessories" and then click on "Terminal." At the terminal prompt, type "sudo apt-get install gparted" (without quotes); then, hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard.

2. Step 2

   Enter your Ubuntu administrator password when prompted; then hit the "Enter" key again. This will download and install GParted which is an open source drive partitioning program.

3. Step 3

   Go to the Ubuntu main menu after the installation is complete, move your cursor over "System," then "Administration" and then click on "Partition Editor." Enter your administrator password when prompted; then click "OK."

4. Step 4

   Click on "GParted" in the toolbar. Then, hover over "Devices" and select your USB flash drive from the list (dev/sdb1, for example). Right-click on the device in the main GParted window; then click "Unmount." It may take a few minutes for the device to be unmounted.

5. Step 5

   Right-click on the device again (after it is unmounted) and then hover over "Format to." Select the desired file system type (RiserFS, linux-swap, Ext 2/3 or FAT16/32, for example); then click "Apply" in the toolbar. Depending on the size of the flash drive, it will take three to four minutes or so for GParted to complete the process.

6. Step 6

   Close GParted after the flash drive is formatted. To mount your USB flash drive, unplug it and then plug it back in. The drive is now ready to store data in the file format you selected.

Thanks to :
http://www.ehow.com/how_4963426_format-usb-flash-drive-ubuntu.html