How to partition a USB drive using Windows , Mac or Linux

 

Can the flash drive be divided into more than one partitions ? Yes, this can be done in a very easy way, even without the need for programs What is the benefit of dividing the flash drive into more than one parachute? Many of us need to organize the files into a safe place, by creating folder , it can be helpful but you can forget and delete the folder if you are working in the same partition. This way the 2nd partition will make it safe for you store your information.

 

 

And when you divide the flash drive into more than one partition, you have the freedom to burn the copy in one of them and store your files in another partition.
Many website have previously explained the method for dividing the flash drive to more than one partition and how to burn a copy of Windows in a particular partition, but the explanation needed a program to do that. In this video we will explain how to do it without 3rd party programs. First back up your data to your desktop then go to step 1.

Step 1. 

Format the USB drive 

This is just to make sure you don't run to any issues in the feature with your thumbdrive and it's just better to have a clean USB before partitioning. Note: you can do this in step 2 also.

 

 

 

Step 2. 

 

Partition your USB thumb drive without programs on Windows.  

Step 3. 

 

Partition (shrink) and  label your drive.

 

 

 

 

One thousand megabytes (1000 MB) is equal to one gigabyte (1 GB), where 1 GB is one billion bytes. 1 MB = 1048576 bytes (= 1024² B = 2²⁰ B)

and you can watch this video to do so use 1024 x the amount of Gigabyte you want to partition your USB flash drive just to get greater than or equal to the amount you wanted

 

 

 

Now right click on the Unallocated Space and choose New Simple Volume.

 

 

 Click Next three times then you will be able to label your USB flash drive in windows 

 

 

Click finish and now you will see that you have finally partitioned your USB flash drive. For some it might not work depending on your USB flash drive manufacturer.

Mac 

Step 1: Open Disk Utility and format your USB drive otherwise it will be greyed out, so back up your information to your desktop or to other drive.

 

Caution - Doing this activity will erase everything on your USB drive

Step 2: Partition your USB drive.

you will be able to partition the disk using Disk Utility after formatting. 

 

 Troubleshooting:

If you get an error like  MediaKit reports not enough space on device for requested operation.

Open Terminal by searching for it by clicking on command (⌘)  and the space bar. Paste the following.

diskutil unmountDisk force disk3

 you will get 

 Forced unmount of all volumes on disk3 was successful

Write zeros to the boot sector:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk3 bs=1024 count=1024
Password:
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1048576 bytes transferred in 0.516867 secs (2028716 bytes/sec)

unplug and plug your USB back you will get this Alert:

click  Initialize you will be good to go!

Linux 

First Step : copy any important data; then format it by going to terminal

Type:

df -h  to locate your USB drive 

 see where it says "media" that's where your USB drive at

for example :

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1       28G    24G  5.3G  92% /
udev            1.4G   12K  1.4G   1% /dev
tmpfs           277M  1.2M  876M   1% /run
exdev            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
sda              9.4G   34M  3.4G   3% /run/shm
/dev/sdc1      14.8G  1.4G  13.4G  10% /media/tecadmin

As you can see it's located under /dev/sdc1 

Step 2:  un-mount /dev/sdc1 USB drive on your system.

 by typing :  sudo umount /dev/sdc1 

If you want to use different formats so you can use the USB on different systems  see the following:  

The commands below will format with a certain file system format as you choose

• vFat File System

  sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1 
  

• NTFS File System

  sudo mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdc1 
  

•  EXT4 File System

  sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 

  
  
  
  
  
  You can do this also with Gparted.

  


  
  
  

  
  

  
  

STEP 3 Partition the USB flash drive using fdisk command
Changes you make to the partition table do not take effect until you issue the write (w) command. Here is a sample partition table: 

 

fdisk is started by typing sudo fdisk The basic fdisk options  are: 

• p print the partition table
  
• n create a new partition
• d delete a partition
• q quit without saving changes
• w write the new partition table and exit 

 

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

• Command (m for help): m
  Command action
     a   toggle a bootable flag
     b   edit bsd disklabel
     c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
     d   delete a partition
     l   list known partition types
     m   print this menu
     n   add a new partition
     o   create a new empty DOS partition table
     p   print the partition table
     q   quit without saving changes
     s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
     t   change a partition's system id
     u   change display/entry units
     v   verify the partition table
     w   write table to disk and exit
     x   extra functionality (experts only)

   
  Command (m for help): n
  Command action
     e   extended
     p   primary partition (1-4)
  p
  Partition number (1-4): 1
  First cylinder (1-621, default 1):<RETURN>
  Using default value 1
  Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-621, default 621): +584M

   Next set up the partition  for swap:
  
  Command (m for help): n
  Command action
     e   extended
     p   primary partition (1-4)
  p
  Partition number (1-4): 2
  First cylinder (197-621, default 197):<RETURN>
  Using default value 197
  Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (197-621, default 621): +228M 
   
  result:
  
  Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes
   
     Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/hdb1   *         1       196    395104+  83  Linux
  /dev/hdb2           197       262    133056   82  Linux swap