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#1 2016-03-12 14:55

Rademes
Member
From: Latvia
Registered: 2015-12-13
Posts: 636

Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

Good day!
As the topic title says, I am looking for the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.
So far I have used GParted, but it is too complicated for novice users, who can accidentally format hard disk instead of flash drive. Also GParted needs some knowledge about partitioning to use it correctly.
So is it available easier alternative in Q4OS?
Also, today I tried gnome-disk-utility for formatting flash drive, but it doesn`t created any partition on it, as shown on attached image - Disk: /dev/sdc
Another question is: I have bought Kingston Data Traveler 101 flash drive, and it was in factory formatted to W95 FAT32 (LBA) as shown on attached image - Disk: /dev/sdb1 (here it has partition).
What is that LBA? And can I trust gnome-disk-utility to format my flash drives?
s_1457789875_9373847_7b727be243.png


Before asking for help please read this topic: https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502   If you have problems with WiFi network, try to install the Network Manager using Q4OS Software Centre.

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#2 2016-03-12 16:54

Dai_trying
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2015-12-14
Posts: 2,989

Re: Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

I'm afraid to say this is one thing I still use windows for, I use rufus in a windows virtualbox to format flash drives, I haven't found anything linux that will give me a clean formatted usb stick. Most of the utilities I have tried will leave something (usually in the mbr) that I did not want. Maybe rufus can be run using wine, but I don't use wine myself so won't be testing that. I will be watching this thread as I would love to find a better linux tool for this job.

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#3 2016-03-12 17:44

Rademes
Member
From: Latvia
Registered: 2015-12-13
Posts: 636

Re: Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

Dai_trying wrote:

Most of the utilities I have tried will leave something (usually in the mbr) that I did not want.

If you want completely wipe MBR, you can use

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=440 count=1

before formatting, or to be completely sure use

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count=1000

This will wipe 1 Gigabyte from beginning of flash drive.


Before asking for help please read this topic: https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502   If you have problems with WiFi network, try to install the Network Manager using Q4OS Software Centre.

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#4 2016-03-12 17:50

Dai_trying
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2015-12-14
Posts: 2,989

Re: Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

This still results in issuing several commands to get a single flash drive formatted, I am pretty familiar with using dd and fdisk/cfdisk etc to achieve desired results, but a single app/utility to do the job is what is needed. Like I said running a windows xp virtualbox which boots in about 30 seconds and running a program (rufus) is sooooo much easier and the reason I do it that way. I would prefer to have a linux package do that, but even gparted doesn't seem to clear it easily.

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#5 2016-03-12 18:26

Rademes
Member
From: Latvia
Registered: 2015-12-13
Posts: 636

Re: Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

Ubuntu for instance has an app called Disk that works very well.

It is gnome-disk-utility, which is available in Q4OS. http://itmag.es/6aMHQ I have been talking a bit about it in first post.
After formatting flash drive using gnome-disk-utility, GParted tells, that drive has loop partition table, and the whole drive is marked as one single partition.
s_1457803327_6963573_352555ad01.png
What is this loop partition table? Can I use it safely for data storage?

Last edited by Rademes (2016-03-12 18:33)


Before asking for help please read this topic: https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502   If you have problems with WiFi network, try to install the Network Manager using Q4OS Software Centre.

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#6 2016-03-13 09:04

Rademes
Member
From: Latvia
Registered: 2015-12-13
Posts: 636

Re: Please suggest the best program for USB Flash drives formatting.

Most of the utilities I have tried will leave something (usually in the mbr) that I did not want.

The MBR consists of 512 or more bytes located in the first sector of the drive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record
As I figured out, formatting USB Flash drive using gnome-disk-utility, creates loop device without partition table, and it formats all available space in memory module, starting from sector 0.
So such formatting should not make any MBR on Flash drive.
I'm right?
s_1457854682_2578939_ab8d3b0c78.png
Unfortunatelly, I could find very few information about loop partitioning in the Internet...

Last edited by Rademes (2016-03-13 09:07)


Before asking for help please read this topic: https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502   If you have problems with WiFi network, try to install the Network Manager using Q4OS Software Centre.

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