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I just formated a partition to exFAT using the terminal command sudo mkfs.exfat -n. Is it possible to do the same thing using a GUI?

Before people comment that the Terminal command works just fine (which it indeed does), I want to say that I am introducing a friend to Ubuntu. He's in his 70's and very unsavvy. People like him usually get scared by any mention of the terminal. I like reccomending Ubuntu to people who know very little about computers, and such people don't like to use the terminal. I don't like telling them that in order to do this or that they have to open the terminal and put together this and that command. They are used to simpler things.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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Fiksdal
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2 Answers2

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First of all you need to install exfat support packages. You can do it by running in terminal

sudo apt-get install exfat-utils exfat-fuse

Then you will be able to use gnome-disks to format exfat.

  1. Open "Disks" application in Dash.

  2. Select your disk drive.

enter image description here

  1. Press the "gears" button and select "Format".

  2. Select "Custom" as "Type" and type in "exfat" as a filesystem.

enter image description here

  1. Press "Format".
Pilot6
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    Before doing the terminal command mentioned in OP, I had to install two packages. Is that the case for this GUI method you mention, also? If so, maybe it's worth adding that to the answer, for the sake of future readers. – Fiksdal Mar 27 '16 at 11:29
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    You need to install the packages before you do it. I will add that. – Pilot6 Mar 27 '16 at 11:38
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    The GUI changed a bit when I tested in 18.04: https://askubuntu.com/questions/771668/why-is-it-that-i-am-unable-to-format-my-pendrive-in-exfat-using-gparted/1089839#1089839 – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Jan 06 '19 at 09:05
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    @CiroSantilli新疆改造中心996ICU六四事件, booting my Ubuntu 18.04 x64 boot stick, dpkg -l exfat-utils shows me, that exfat-utils V. 1.2.8 is already installed. Looks like this became a standard package? – Frank N Aug 27 '19 at 15:19
  • @FrankNocke yes, I would expect it to be pre-installed, since that is the case for gnome-disks which I mention in my answer, and gnome-disks supports exfat and is preinstalled. This explains how to see the preinstalled packages: https://askubuntu.com/questions/50077/how-to-get-a-list-of-preinstalled-packages but I can't find it at: http://releases.ubuntu.com/bionic/ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.manifest not sure why. – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Aug 27 '19 at 15:28
  • Kernel 5.4 supports exFat so i'd recommend not to install other tools for such a sensitive task, upgrade if possible! – David Canós Feb 25 '21 at 08:38
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Kde Partition Manager is another alternative to gnome-disks (which I don't have a good experience with when it comes to formatting).

It's Like GParted but (still) have support for exFAT.

I just made a more detailed post about it here.

screenshot

Note

If you're introducing this to a new user, make sure to tell them to use the correct (USB) disk on the right.

Asme Just
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