Viewing photos on a flash drive using Model A2602 ipad

Your actual questions - with specific answers:

Q. “Will the lightning to usb 3 adapter work with the model A2602 iPad to view photos on a Patriot 8 go flash drive?

A. Yes

Q. “The flash drive I need to reformat already has photos on the drive. Won’t reformatting the drive erase the photos?”

A. Yes - but if the drive is already formatted correctly, you won’t need to reformat the drive. If you do need to reformat the drive, you must use a computer to do so.

Q. “Is the Netbook capable of formatting the drive.”

A. Yes, but you must select a format compatible with your iPad. This must be FAT, FAT32, exFAT, APFS or HFS+ with a single partition. Microsoft NTFS and other proprietary device formatting are not supported. The method that you format the drive, if needed, may differ between operating systems.

Information about connecting external storage devices to your iPad can be found here:

Connect external storage devices to iPad - Apple Support

To be recognised by iPadOS, the attached USB storage device must be formatted to FAT, FAT32, exFAT, APFS or HFS+ with a single partition. Microsoft NTFS and other proprietary device formatting are not supported. Formatting and partitioning, if required, must be performed using a separate computer; iPad does not provide any facilities to format an external storage device.

If your flash drive is already formatted correctly, it won’t require re-formatting. The information provided was merely intended to outline compatibility requirements.