On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 08:27:00AM -0700, Todd Cary wrote:
> I have a usb drive, /media/disk and I want to reformat it. There
> are several questions that come up:
>
> How can I determine the current format?
>
> Do I use the mkfs command?
>
> Many thanks...
>
> Todd
To throw a caveat into the works here:
I was reading a while back some articles about the difficulties of
using flash drives, which for purposes of this discussion includes, so
I'm given to understand, not just SSDs but also usb flash devices.
It was pointed out there that many (if not all, may be all, for
all I know) of these devices are shipped with a specially tweaked
FAT file system (FAT, VFAT, Fat32, whatever the specifics were I
don't remember). These specially tweaked filesystems have been modified
to take into account characteristics of the flash device, such that
partitions may begin in odd places, or the FAT may have only one copy,
or may be of a restricted size or in an odd location. All to optimize
performance. Once you've reformatted it, you can never again revert
to the original condition (unless you've saved a bit-wise image of
it with, e.g., dd.)
--
---- Fred Smith -- fredex@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -----------------------------
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
------------------------------ Matthew 7:21 (niv) -----------------------------
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