Hello Guys. I would like to format a USB (checking for bad sectors) but (1) don’t know what software should I use and (2) don’t know the file system I should format the USB drive to.
About the file system, I need one that lets me work on both, Linux and Windows, since my laptop runs with openSUSE and the computers at college run Windows.
Thank you for your help.
You don’t say what is on this USB hard drive, but if it is blank or your wish to remove anything that might be on it, it can be formatted using the YaST Partitioner. The openSUSE Partitioner can create a FAT partition type which is compatible with both Windows and Linux. Windows can format it as well using a NTFS partition type. openSUSE then can read and write to a NTFS partition, but it can not create one from scratch. You can also install in openSUSE Linux, the application GParted, which can create a NTFS partition for you without using Windows.
My normal rule of thumb is to create your NTFS partitions using Windows before you install openSUSE and to not use the Windows disk program to partition anything else after you have installed openSUSE. However, if there is nothing else on the USB drive, it likely will be OK to use Windows disk format on a disk that does not include any openSUSE partitions. When in doubt, just install GParted from YaST and use it to create your NTFS partitions and format them.
Thank You,
I don’t see NTFS in YaST partitioner
Is my system missing some library file ?
Need to read the entire post where I said “You can also install in openSUSE Linux, the application GParted, which can create a NTFS partition for you without using Windows.” Go into YaST / Software / Software Management and search on and install gparted. You can then use it to create NTFS partitions.
Thank You,
oops . Any reason why YaST partitioner doesn’t offer NTFS :sarcastic:
I think NTFS has been around from around middle of 1990’s when windows NT came out
I do not know the answer as to why YaST partitioner does not offer the capability to format NTFS and GParted Live CD does have the functionality. I do note that GParted liveCD (and also Parted Magic liveCD) are GNU/Linux distros that specialize in partitioning
I do recall there is a lot of history behind GNU/Linux obtaining reliable read/write capabilities for NTFS. Originally there was an NTFS driver for GNU/Linux that had only very limited capability wrt read-write, and progress was very slow. In essence, that slow updates to that driver (together with total lack of support from Microsoft to read their proprietary NTFS format) held back GNU/Linux full compatibility with NTFS. Back in year 2004/2005 it was very very frustrating if one wished to write to an NTFS partition from GNU/Linux.
Eventually, around year 2005 or 2006, there was a software fork with a different NTFS driver (known as NTFS-3G) written. It took a long time for the new driver to be accepted, but eventually distribution after distribution moved to the new driver.
If you type ‘rpm -q ntfs-3g’ you will note your PC has the ‘ntfs-3g’ driver installed.
yes . It seems to be installed.
$rpm -q ntfs-3g
ntfs-3g-2012.1.15-4.1.3.x86_64
They don’t seem to have given up on doing sneaky stuff
Refer:- https://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/news-announcements/tech-news/482229-linux-windows-8-fast-startup-puts-data-risk.html
I read and re-read the thread up until now and I am a little confused.
The OP aksed IMHO (see the quote above) for something that detects bad sectors. For that you need a disk formatting tool that does what many people here call “low level formatting”, but what is in effect “formatting”. (The wording difference comes from the MS background that many have. It in fact derives from so called “floppy disks” where both were done in one swoop).
Then there is (again imho) a second question that asks, if I then want to partition that disk (in one or more partitions, that is not clear from the OP’s question) what type of file system should I choose to create on it (attention: “creating a file system” is the Unix/Linux wording for what many MS oriented people call “formatting”).
The answers up until now concentrate on the second question (NTFS advised because the OP apperently wants to exchange the (un)pluggable device with Windows systems). Anybody knows an answer on the first question? I assume that you need a tool from the disk manufacturer. And that tool most probably will only runs under Windows. (but it is best to create the NTFS under Windows in any case).
On 2013-01-20 10:56, hcvv wrote:
> The OP aksed IMHO (see the quote above) for something that detects bad
> sectors.
I don’t know if a tool like “badblocks” works on a stick. :-?
> The answers up until now concentrate on the second question (NTFS
> advised because the OP apperently wants to exchange the (un)pluggable
> device with Windows systems).
I think that FAT is preferred. I have read vague references to NTFS
wearing a region of the stick (the log). I have also seen tricks to
format as ext3 without a log for the same reason.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
Where did you get that it is a bout a memory stick from?
I only see that the OP talks about something that is connected through USB (a bus technique).
Because he talks about file systems and the like, I assumed the device he connects is a storage device (I admit he did not
explain that directly).
Becauser he talks about bad sector detection I assumed he talks about a revolving disk type of storage (though again he does not say so).
A lot of assumptions here, but I realy did not feel this is about a memory stick 
Surprise!
On 2013-01-20 18:36, hcvv wrote:
> Where did you get that it is a bout a memory stick from?
Right, he does not say. The subject says “drive”, but the message only
says “USB”.
Then if it is a hard disk I would use the long test of smartctl.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
Sorry guys. A little clarificarion here: Probably I used the word “drive” incorrectly, but I’m refering to a Kingston USB Stick with 4GB of storage space, meant to carry files such as ebooks, Office/LibreOffice Documents, Videos, Audios, etc. Basically everything that, for one reason or another, I need to transport between my system (wich runs openSUSE 12.2) and the ones in college (wich mostly run Windows).
My apologies if I made the question a little confusing.
Use a windu machine to format the stick with FAT. That will be readable and writeable from any machine.