For questions regarding file formats, or formatting hard drives.
34
votes
7answers
99k views
How to format a USB or external drive?
Using Ubuntu 11.10, how do I format an external or USB drive? I don't find an option to 'format' when I right click. In the new version, the drives don't come up on the desktop but instead come on ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Reinstall Ubuntu with encrypted home directory?
I have Ubuntu 10.04 installed with encrypted home directory. /home is on a aseparate partition. Can I just boot from 10.10 cd, reformat '/' and install as usual? I think it should work if I use the ...
12
votes
4answers
31k views
How to format a USB flash drive?
In Windows there is a straightforward "Format" option in a flash drive's right-click pop-up menu. Where's that in Ubuntu?
I understand there's always standard partition management command line stuff ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I clear everything (data, viruses) from a thumbdrive?
Say I used some thumbdrive on a public Windows computer and I copy some data to my Ubuntu computer with it. I cannot be completely sure that the Windows computer was clean, and it might have put ...
11
votes
3answers
883 views
Why is there 4.86(maybe 15.1) GB of USED-space on a newly partitioned and formatted 298 GB drive (as ext4 by Gparted)
Well the question says most of it...
Gparted reports the used space as 4.86 GB
Nautilus reports used space as 15.1 GB...(via Properties of /media/U_0298_data)
Why is this space used? and who is ...
11
votes
5answers
7k views
Reinstalling Ubuntu without formating /home, as well as without any old config files?
I have /home on a separate partition. I want to reinstall Ubuntu.
I don't want to lose my personal files in /home (I already have a backup but I would like to avoid the hassle of restoring the ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
How to reformat a drive with NTFS?
I currently have a corrupted NTFS external drive that I want to re-format in a format that can be read by Linux and Windows - suggestions?
I want to reformat my 1TB NTFS drive to a format that can be ...
7
votes
5answers
4k views
Is it recommended to format an external drive to ext4?
I have a new 2TB external hard drive I will be using for additional storage and backup. I will only use it on two Ubuntu machines. Is it recommended to format the drive to ext4? Are there any ...
7
votes
4answers
6k views
Is there any recovery software available for ext4?
Well, I have accidentally deleted my Ubuntu drive. I just want to recover all the contents of /home.
Is there a way to do it? I referred to foremost, where I need to specify the extensions of files. ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I set the date format to my country setting?
I am German, but I use only English software. Hence, I am also using English Ubuntu. It's not because I don't know how to install German Ubuntu. It's because I prefer to work with English software ...
5
votes
3answers
4k views
Is there a way to restore/format an iPod under Linux?
I have an iPod Classic, and it's full of duplicates and it's a complete mess and would like to start anew, and I was curious if there was a way to restore an iPod like you could under Windows/Mac?
4
votes
3answers
802 views
Retrieve file of a deleted partition
A hard-drive with four partitions
Ubuntu
Swap
Data
Free
was accidentally formated and then partitioned in the same way with the same partition sizes again. I am looking for a way to retrieve a ...
4
votes
2answers
13k views
Partition does not start on physical sector boundary?
I've one HD on my laptop, with two partitions (one ext3 with Ubuntu 12.04 installed and one swap).
fdisk is giving me a Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary warning. What is the ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Advanced Format Alignment using parted
How do I align a Western Digital Advanced Format hard drive using minimal (4K) alignment when installing Ubuntu 11.04? Should I do it before installing via the LiveCD? If so, do I select to "Try ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
How to format FAT32 filesystem infected with windows virus and that is write protected
I have a pendrive with FAT32 filesystem. it is infected with virus dont know which but has autorun.inf and create exe file within folder. I tried to format it with various filesystems and even try to ...
4
votes
1answer
858 views
Copying root partition and /home to a new larger hard drive
I am getting a larger hard drive and would like to copy root directory to it. The partition for root is 20G. I would like to make it larger on the new drive. I also would like to copy /home to a ...
4
votes
0answers
107 views
Is there any way to format my hard drive so that data cannot be restored? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I securely erase a USB hard drive?
How to delete file(s) in secure manner?
I have 500 GB HD and I have very important personal data in it. The thing is that if ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I convert an AVI file to a Blackberry-compatible format?
I need a program to convert an AVI file to a format compatible with my Blackberry. On Windows, I've tried format factory and converted the .avi file to .3gp, but the output is of very bad quality.
3
votes
3answers
2k views
I would like to fully erase my hard drive and start from a clean slate with Ubuntu
How do I do that? Can I fully format the internal hard drive and then install Ubuntu, or would that leave all systems, including usb and cd drives unoperable.
Otherwise, how do I remove windows ...
3
votes
4answers
162 views
Is it safe to use a USB external drive without a valid partition table?
Here's what I did:
Installed the SATA hard disk in the enclosure
Connected it via USB
With Disk Utility I formatted the drive with an EXT4 file system
Started using the hard drive without any issue ...
3
votes
2answers
733 views
How do I format a TrueCrypt-encrypted flashdrive?
I encrypted a flashdrive using TrueCrypt, but now I've changed my mind and I want to format it as an unencrypted drive. When I plug it in it is no longer appears on the launcher or in the Nautilus ...
3
votes
2answers
5k views
Why is my USB drive read only on Ubuntu only?
I formatted a USB flash drive as FAT in Ubuntu, copied some files, made it bootable, and now it only mounts as read-only.
If I stick the same drive in Windows or Mac, it is writable, so it's not the ...
3
votes
1answer
81 views
Cannot format an hdd
I have an SSD with ubuntu installed, now, I'm trying to format a My Passport Essential hdd, throught GParted with no success.
I've tried to make it primary and I've tried to make it extented, GParted ...
3
votes
1answer
477 views
I cancelled gparted operation ,what to do next?
I cancelled gparted operation by mistake .Now one of the partition became corrupted ,what to next? Should I format it? Data is important to me ;(
Edit1: I tried to recover partition using testdisk ...
3
votes
2answers
417 views
How do I get a new drive integrated into my software RAID?
When I first installed Ubuntu a couple years ago, I set it up with a software RAID using the Ubuntu alternate install disk. I have two 500 GB drives in the RAID.
A few days ago, one of the drives ...
3
votes
0answers
347 views
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 4684514
I'm trying to format a hard drive.
I've used mkfs.ntfs /dev/sda1 after the fdisk command, but mkfs doesn't work!
And when I press Ctrl+Alt+F6 I see this message:
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
How can I keep my wubi installation after formatting Windows? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can re-use Ubuntu which was installed via Wubi on Windows 7?
Well I need to format my Windows 7 PC with a wubi installation. Is there a way I can backup the virtual ...
2
votes
2answers
42k views
How to format a USB drive? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to format a USB flash drive?
How do I clear everything (data, viruses) from a thumbdrive?
How to format a pen drive in Ubuntu 12.04? I have this pen drive which ...
2
votes
3answers
556 views
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Can't format hard drive back to Windows 7 after fully installing Ubuntu
I've searched the posts and can't find the exact answer I need. I've installed Ubuntu to my hard drive completely, and wiped my Windows 7. I do not want Ubuntu anymore; I want Windows 7 back. But when ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
Installed Ubuntu and accidently gave all the hard disk space to Ubuntu
Saying this, when i booted and installed Ubuntu, my hard disk was whole formatted.
I had plenty of pictures, videos and music on my Local Disk [D] drive and i don't want to loose it!!!
Now i have ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
Shrinking root device size after install?
I installed ubuntu after installing a fresh copy of windows. Unfortunately I accidentally clicked on one of the pre-set options and did not get a chance to manually specify the size of my root ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Distinguishing partition format types
How can I tell whether a partition is formatted with FAT32 or exFAT?
2
votes
1answer
126 views
How can I use my USB flash drive again after I zeroed it out in Disks?
I've used the "Disks" utility to zero out a USB flash drive (pendrive). Now it's not showing up anymore as a usable storage medium.
I need to use this usb drive (of 4 GB) again to write an OS image ...
2
votes
2answers
109 views
If I copy the Ubuntu installation files to USB, will it delete everything on that drive?
If I copy the Ubuntu install files to USB in order to install on another PC, will it reformat (i.e. delete) everything on that USB drive? Or will it still function as before and all previous files ...
2
votes
2answers
302 views
Is there any way to completely wipe Ubuntu?
I've completely screwed up my Ubuntu install, and want to start over (I want to try a different edition anyway, so downloading a new package using apt-get won't be necessary). Is there any way to ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Possible to format/create partitions with Clonezilla?
I am wondering if its possible to create/format/resize partitions with clonezilla?
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Does an upgrade to a partition format get applied to an already existing partition?
I have often wondered, when an update is made to ext4 for example in the kernel and then more performance updates are made to it (And they keep up adding up over time) when i upgrade to the latest ...
2
votes
1answer
84 views
Cannot format swap
I was installing ubuntu 12.04 to the side of windows 7 to my friends' computer when I came across the partitioning of the HDD. By accident, I selected swap as the whole partition, which I intended on ...
2
votes
1answer
109 views
C drive partitoning/ formating simple volume [closed]
My C Hard drive is a simple volume and will not split.
Wondering if i can format or change my C drive to a primary partition (so it will split) or if i can install ubuntu straight onto my C Drive and ...
2
votes
5answers
1k views
How do I format my ubuntu partition(ext4) and keep my windows partition?
I want my old family pc to use only windows xp now that I don't use it anymore. However, I have a 200GB ext4 partition, containing ubuntu. Windows does not detect ext4.
I also don't want it booting ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Hard Drive Formatting and Unmounting Errors
I'm trying to format a hard drive using Ubuntu 11.10. Every time that I attempt to format it from the Disk Utility, I get the error saying the device is busy, and under details it says:
/dev/sda1 is ...
2
votes
1answer
280 views
How to remove swap from RAID1 Array?
Can anyone point in the right direction on how to remove SWAP out of a RAID1 configuration? According to the Ubuntu Advanced installation guide, here, it said to add swap to the raid but I am having ...
2
votes
1answer
940 views
How to format datetime indicator in Unity's panel to show in two lines?
Is it possible to format datetime indicator in Unity3D to show in two lines?
I tried this:
how-to-customize-indicator-datetime-to-two-line-configuration
But that seems to work only when I run my ...
2
votes
2answers
145 views
Will Ubuntu One delete or restore files in the cloud after formatting my PC?
One of PCs the Windows is having typically Windows issues and needs a reformat. I have my documents, pictures, music files etc syncing across Ubuntu One to access on Smartphone and my Ubuntu dedicated ...
2
votes
1answer
495 views
Internal hard drive, can't format [closed]
I cannot format anymore the hard drive of my laptop.
Here is how I proceed:
I am starting my computer with a USB live drive (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx).
Then I start disk utility and try to ...
2
votes
0answers
242 views
USB NTFS pen drive and hard drive not working after plugging them into Ubuntu
I connected a USB key (NTFS formatted) with data in it, on 12.04, after I disconnected it, I was no longer able to access the USB key neither from Windows nor from Ubuntu. The system asks me to format ...
2
votes
0answers
239 views
How to format a SD card easily in KDE?
first I want to clarify that I know how to do this with programs like kde-partitionmanager or gparted.
What I am really looking for is a easy way such as right click in dolphin on my SD Card or USB ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Problem with reformatting Sandisk read-only USB drive
I have a problem reformatting my USB drive. Its showing this error message whenever I try to reformat it using GParted:
Parted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Format /dev/sdb1 as ntfs ...
2
votes
0answers
2k views
How do I format or partition a read-only USB drive?
Whenever I try formatting my Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB, I get this error message on Gparted.
GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 14.42 GiB) on ...
