On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 14:05, Kevin J. Cummings <cummings@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > A pen drive does not need a low level format A pen drive is a "mass storage device" per USB specs. It doesn't matter if the data is then stored magnetically on a spinning disk, on flash memory, or hammered in wood by a robotic arm. "low level formatting" does not exist anymore on PCs since the advent of the IDE interface, unless you use a manufacturer-provided service utility. I'm perfectly aware of the difference between partitioning and formatting. Formatting, as you well explain, is erasing the contents of a partition by laying out a new filesystem... The fact that a FAQ like the following needs to exist shows the user-hostile nature of Linux in some instances... Yes, a user who plugs a removable storage device might want to format it... FAQ: How to format a Flash drive in Linux http://www.ehow.com/how_5092605_format-flash-drive-linux.html ...and having to call GPartEd instead of showing a "format" option on the object' s pop-up menu is just stupid. I don't want to edit partitions, I want to do a quick format on the device to make 100% sure any hidden auto-executable win32 code is erased. I'm not 100% sure now, but I believe even 1992's IBM OS/2 2.0 featured a "format" option on any drive object's pop-up menu FC -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
