# Format USB dongle



## tennea9 (Mar 7, 2021)

Hello,


Going on configuring and discovering FreeBSD on my laptop (I'm a beginner), I try, unsuccessfully to format a 256Go USB Key to GPT (freebsd-UFS) (-> to use it)
I used gpart.

gpart destroy -F /dev/da0
gpart create -s gpt da0
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs /dev/da0

the result mounting in KDE is a msdosfs 779,0 kio at /dev/da0p1
the /dev/da0p2 with 219,7 Gio doesn't appear.

I read other posts, but I'm not sure to understand.

Did I forget something ?

Thank you.


----------



## Phishfry (Mar 7, 2021)

First off I like to totally wipe the stick.
`dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=8M status=progress`

Then create a partition and format it.
`gpart create -s gpt da0`
`gpart add -t freebsd-ufs da0`
`newfs -U /dev/da0p1`


----------



## balanga (Mar 7, 2021)

tennea9 said:


> Hello,
> 
> 
> Going on configuring and discovering FreeBSD on my laptop (I'm a beginner), I try, unsuccessfully to format a 256Go USB Key to GPT (freebsd-UFS) (-> to use it)
> ...


When using gpart() you don't need to prefix the device with '/dev/'.


----------



## tennea9 (Mar 8, 2021)

Hello Phishfry and balanga,
thank you for your help.
I followed what you sent me. KDE is not showing the key.
I see it with utilities, but nothing in Dolphin.
Have you got an idea ?


----------



## balanga (Mar 8, 2021)

I'd suggest posing a new question in https://forums.freebsd.org/forums/kde.30/ .

Also if you problem here has been sorted out then edit the title of the thread and mark it as 'Solved'.


----------



## tennea9 (Mar 8, 2021)

Unfortunately, the procedure did no work
I just posted it in KDE part following your advice.
maybe I'll have an explanation. The key is brand new.
As soon as I get an answer, I'll close this one


----------

