Arch Linux

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,568

Clarification mkfs.ext4 message formatting drive

I have an NVME enclosure that plugs in a USB C port. In it I installed an NVME drive. The whole setup is recognized as /dev/sdb. Then I run wipefs -a to clean the drive but when I run mkfs.ext4 I get this message:

/dev/sdb contains `Atari DEGAS Elite bitmap 320 x 200 x 16, color palette 0000 0000 1000 0000 0000 ...' data

Curious I ran fdisk to check and I get this print:

Disk model: Enclosure       
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xe1db7a98

What is the ATARI file?
Why do I have this dos partition and why did wipefs fail to clean it?
Is it safe to delete this dos?
Could it be this partition resides outside of the NVME drive in the enclosure itself perhaps to manage the IO which means I shouldn't delete it?

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: Clarification mkfs.ext4 message formatting drive

No idea what the atari message means, but sdb is not a partition .

It's the entire drive .
What you have atm is  a partitionless drive aka a superfloppy .

Check https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning

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d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,568

Re: Clarification mkfs.ext4 message formatting drive

Thanks. And yes my aim really is  partitionless drive formatted in ext4. The whole drive is a backup drive. I decided to go ahead and just format anyway. I then ran a rsync to write files to it and then ran fsck on the drive  just to check if there were any issues. Everything went fine.
My suspicion is this ATARI thing actually resides in the Enclosure and not in the drive perhaps as part of its own internal interface but that's a wild guess.
Anyway I'll monitor the issue for now but it seems all is ok.