This more of a personal reference than a HOWTO but someone else might still find it useful.

I'm using a 4GB Kingston DataTraveler 101

It comes pre-installed with some windows software on a separate partition hence the fdisk/formatting.

I formatted it using the vfat filesystem so I can swap it between my Linux and Windows boxes without compatibility issues.

usb 4-7.4: USB disconnect, address 14
usb 4-7.4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 19
usb 4-7.4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb 4-7.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1642
usb 4-7.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 4-7.4: Product: DT 101 G2
usb 4-7.4: Manufacturer: Kingston
usb 4-7.4: SerialNumber: OMITTED
scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DT 101 G2        1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 7818184 512-byte hardware sectors (4003 MB)
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 7818184 512-byte hardware sectors (4003 MB)
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
sdc: sdc1
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

apt-get install dosfstools

fdisk /dev/sdc1
d
1
d
2
d
3
d
4
w
fdisk /dev/sdc
d
w
fdisk /dev/sdc
p
n
p
1
[enter]
[enter]
t
b
a
1
p
w

mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdc1
cd /mnt/
mkdir usbflash
mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbflash
ls -l /mnt/usbflash
umount  /dev/sdc1