On Thu, 2 Jun 2011, Todd Cary wrote: > To: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> > From: Todd Cary <todd at aristesoftware.com> > Subject: Re: [CentOS] How to format a USB drive? > > > > On 6/2/2011 10:17 AM, fred smith wrote: >> 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.) >> > Fortunately, I am using a HD; not a Thumb Drive. > Thanks though... Hi Todd. And we all thought it *was* a USB flash drive? Well I did, did anyone else? Kind Regards, Keith Roberts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Websites: http://www.karsites.net http://www.php-debuggers.net http://www.raised-from-the-dead.org.uk All email addresses are challenge-response protected with TMDA [http://tmda.net] -----------------------------------------------------------------