The Windows device sticky thread...

[Enzo]

This is so totally over my head, but is there a one or two sentence explanation of what this is done for? Why someone would use this? All I know about is memory and connecting one thing to another.

[g1]

I'm doing one right now. The link gives different directions than what you show. It gets different after 'create partition primary'.
I chose NTFS and it's taking a long time to format. Like one percent per minute on a 30gig usb.

[The Dude]

Isn't there a "quick format" option?

[nosaj]

This is so totally over my head, but is there a one or two sentence explanation of what this is done for? Why someone would use this? All I know about is memory and connecting one thing to another.

The only use I have had is if I want to make a usb drive bootable and for that to happen it will have to be marked active. Ususally when using a drive to boot win7 or linux.

nosaj

[nosaj]

I'm doing one right now. The link gives different directions than what you show. It gets different after 'create partition primary'.
I chose NTFS and it's taking a long time to format. Like one percent per minute on a 30gig usb.

ususally for a usb drive you will want fat32. NTFS allows you to set user permissions on files which I've found is only beneficial in a networked enviroment.

nosaj

[nosaj]

Isn't there a "quick format" option?

format /fs=fat32 or ntfs

nosaj

[big_teee]

Thanks guys, I was gone for a while.
fat32, ntfs, either will do.
Sometimes it is hard to delete the mbr on a factory usb drive.
The command line will ignore the cautions, and delete it anyway.
It is easy to do command line format on linux, was wanting the similar for windows.
Linux # mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx -I

[Enzo]

Oh, when you asked about a USB stick, I thought the little flash drives, are you discussing like USB hard drive sort of thing?

[nosaj]

Thanks guys, I was gone for a while.
fat32, ntfs, either will do.
Sometimes it is hard to delete the mbr on a factory usb drive.
The command line will ignore the cautions, and delete it anyway.
It is easy to do command line format on linux, was wanting the similar for windows.
Linux # mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx -I

nosaj
format /fs:fat32 /mbr should lay down a new boot record.

[nosaj]

Oh, when you asked about a USB stick, I thought the little flash drives, are you discussing like USB hard drive sort of thing?

Flash drive usb stick same thing/ Tomato tomoto

nosaj

[big_teee]

Yes, just the memory stick, but they are treated similar in software.
The commputer doesn't know what is on the other end of the usb plug, it thinks they are all drives.
Here's the command to speed it up.
Format fs=NTFS Quick
This looks like it would work.
https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-f...in-windows-10/
T

[g1]

98% complete.

[g1]

Done. I did the 'assign' and it named it 'K'.
I think it usually names any usb I plug in 'J'.
Now if I plug in another, it is J, but this one always gets called K now. I guess it reads that from the formatting?

[big_teee]

Now you have it ready to put linux live on it.
T

[big_teee]

That format procedure should also work for SD camera media cards.
If you have a sd card that is screwed up, a low level format will usually fix it.
I put out trail cameras in the fall, and I've had to format some of the cards to get them to work.
I use fat-32 for that.
T