USB , Flash drives cleaning formatting

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2gangvc

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I have a few questions here.

Is it necessary to format the USB or flash drive as its also called before copying files over to it for backup / saving of files , if so how is this done in Linux terminal, and what do i use as a format ?. or is this formatting irrelevant in Linux ?.
I also need to do the same for a fresh install USB to make it a bootable USB stick for mint 22 OS upgrade.
Is there a basics Linux learning page on the site here cos i think i,m missing some fundamental information on how to get things done in Linux .
Many thanks
 


2gangvc said:
Is it necessary to format the USB or flash drive
Click to expand...
IMO that depends on usage, if you're using an old one to act as a new storage device for files and folders the yes I would re-format it,[if you have a current version of mint, use the USB formatter in the mint menu ] If i was using it to write a bootable ISO pen-drive then no as the writing process will completely clear the pen-drive before it writes the new application, if you are currently running Mint 21 you can do a safe upgrade using the mint upgrade application in the software manager,
 
You had asked how to format a usb stick from the terminal. This page will show you how to do that.
tecadmin.net

How To Format USB Drive in Linux Command Line – TecAdmin

How to Format USB drive in Linux using Command Line. This article will help you to format USB Flash drive in Ubuntu systems via Command line
tecadmin.net
Click to expand...
How ever if your using any debian based distro you can install mintstick
Code: 
sudo apt install mintstick
Mint has graciously provide these tools upstream for us all to enjoy!
and as @Brickwizard has said it has a nice usb formatter which will easily format the stick for you. I would choose exfat or fat 32 or ntfs for the file system. Ext4 is good but would be usable only on linux Windows will not see it if it's formatted in ext4 or other linux file systems.
 
All new pen drives and new HDD for a new OS Mint 22 from Mint 19. I will lookat the USB Mint menu then.
I,m learning as i go here, thanks for your help.
 
@2gangvc :-

I've always found the ROSA Linux "Image writer" to be pretty snag-free, if all you want is to "burn" an ISO image to a flash-drive for "Live" operation. Of course, you can then install from the "Live" session, just as you can from any of the USB burner utilities.

You can get this in binary format from their Wiki page. Just download the appropriate binary, make sure it's executable (open a terminal and run):-

Code: 
chmod +x /path/to/executable

....stick it in your /home directory, if you want (though it'll run from anywhere), and simply click on it to launch it.

ROSA ImageWriter - Rosalab Wiki

wiki.rosalab.ru wiki.rosalab.ru

Works every bit as well as Balena Etcher.....which for some reason we've never been able to use in Puppyland due to the unique way Puppy works. ROSA's Image writer works though...and re-formats the drive to ISO9660 format as it does so. For which reason I recommend using a fairly small drive to run this with, since because the whole drive is formatted as ISO9660, it's read-only.....and you can't do anything else with it.

The utility is 'dd'-based, as is Etcher. So it copies everything, literally byte-for-byte.....

Just a suggestion.


Mike. ;)
 
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Thanks for all your help, its a bit of a steep learning curve here !.
 
I personally like Gnome Disks open the Synaptic Package Manager and type in gnome-disk-utility once there just right click and select "Mark for installation" then click apply - here is step by step - Highlight your thumb-drive now click the hamburger button then Format disk and follow the rest
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For creating a bootable USB I use belanaEtcher - here - https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/tag/v1.19.25
and download the AppImage - why the AppImage - it is a self-contained app it runs by itself and you can simply copy it from one Linux machine to another and it will run
 
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