[SOLVED] USB HDD

GPGAgent · 06-24-2021, 06:32 PM

I'll never use my usb hdd on anything but linux, so is there a benefit to reformat it to ext4 fs? Performance, reliability, security?

syg00 · 06-24-2021, 08:05 PM

All of the above - especially linux permissions.
These days, if you really need to move data back-and-forth, exfat is my preference with the in-kernel support. But not in your case.

michaelk · 06-24-2021, 08:08 PM

Yes.

linux has very limited tools to repair a NTFS filesystem if it becomes damaged.

jefro · 06-24-2021, 09:27 PM

There are a number of file systems that could be selected also depending on your intended use.

In some very few instances the usb drive controller may not work well with some linux file systems.

GPGAgent · 06-25-2021, 04:04 AM

Cheers folks, it's a 4TB Seagate One Touch portable HDD - should be okay with ext4 I think

fatmac · 06-25-2021, 04:54 AM

All my HDD / SSD / Pendrives / SDHC cards are formated with ext4 filesystems, why use a MS filesystem...

GPGAgent · 06-25-2021, 07:30 AM

Before I go ahead and change this drive to ext4, with gparted I have a question

Gparted shows an EFI 200mb partition, should I delete this or just leave it!

Also why doesn't df find it

Code:

jonke@charlie:~$ df -hT
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  5.9G     0  5.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.2G  1.7M  1.2G   1% /run
/dev/sda5      ext4      228G   62G  155G  29% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.9G     0  5.9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.9G     0  5.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.9G  260K  5.9G   1% /tmp
/dev/sda1      vfat      511M  4.0K  511M   1% /boot/efi
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.2G   64K  1.2G   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb5      ext4      1.8T  1.7T   55G  97% /media/jonke/6e725920-1c32-4931-bab9-fc8c12d01128
/dev/sdc2      fuseblk   3.7T   16G  3.7T   1% /media/jonke/One Touch
jonke@charlie:~$

camorri · 06-25-2021, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Also why doesn't df find it

It is not mounted. Mount it, and df should show it them.

Guttorm · 06-25-2021, 07:40 AM

Some computers require this EFI partition to boot from the disk. So leave it if you intend to install some OS on it, otherwise you can just delete it.

And df doesn't show it because it's not mounted.

GPGAgent · 06-25-2021, 10:09 AM

camorri and Guttorm - thanks, but even if it's mounted sdc1 (it on the same usb hdd as sdc2, still doesn't show with a df command?

camorri · 06-25-2021, 10:39 AM

Did you restart gdisk? Is the partition formatted?

If its mounted, cd to the mount point, and look to see what is in the partition. It may not be formatted, and / or not have nay files in it.

efi partitions are for booting on a UEFI system. Do you have UFEI, or is an older system with BIOS? Don't confuse the to items, they are different. If you are not shure, post the make and model of the system and tell us if its a desktop or a laptop.

If you have no plans to boot from this drive, you can safely delete the partition. If you have a BIOS system, then it is usless unless you move the externel drove to a UEFI system and want to boot from the drive.

You can always create a new efi partition if that were the case.