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dxxvi

Member

Registered: 2011-07-23

Posts: 122

[Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

... so that it is recognized in Windows 8?

I formatted a usb drive in different formats like fat32, ntfs in gparted, but that drive is not recognizable in Windows 8.1 (Windows didn't see that drive at all). Does anybody know what my problem is?

Regards.

Last edited by dxxvi (2014-08-19 10:01:48)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

I don't use gparted, but isn't that just for partitioning?  You still need to make the actual filesystem using one of the mkfs* tools.

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ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

gparted should be able to create the filesystem as long as long as tools for the fs are installed, e.g. dosfstools for fat32.
can you mount the drive on linux after formatting it?

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,019

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

Is it the first partition? Because Windows sees only the first partition (yay!).

ANOKNUSA

Member

Registered: 2010-10-22

Posts: 2,141

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

I don't know about Windows 8, but when you format a partition in Windows 7 the Disk Manager (or Disk Management or whatever it's called) assigns it a drive letter automatically. In the past I've had to manually assign drive letters to parittions formatted under Linux before they were detected by Explorer.

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alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

Did you verify the partition ID was correct? Windows it pretty strict about that IIRC.

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drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

How to format a usb drive in Linux so that so that it is recognized in Windows 8?

Format it in Windows 8!

Asmir

Member

From: BiH

Registered: 2011-10-06

Posts: 67

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

Try creating new DOS partition table, you can do it with gparted (there is option for that somewhere in the menu), or you can use command line tool like parted. Than format it to FAT.

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~git

dxxvi

Member

Registered: 2011-07-23

Posts: 122

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

Thanks everybody but my problem is still there.

I format the usb drive (which has only 1 partition) in fat32 format. This is the command gparted run:

mkfs.fat -F32 -v -l -n "        " /dev/sdc1

After that the drive can be mounted in Linux. I can even copy a mp3 file there and play that file from the drive.

In Windows 8.1, I don't see that drive in the File Explorer but I'm still able to see it in the Disk Management (Control Panel | System and Security | Administrative Tools | Computer Management). When I right click on it and choose Format, Windows says "The system cannot find the file specified". fdisk says the drive Id is "c" and the type is "W95 FAT32 (LBA)".  The error is always "The system cannot find the file specified" no matter if I have a partition on the drive or no partition on the drive.

By the way I don't see any option for a DOS partition, just FAT32 or FAT16.

Asmir

Member

From: BiH

Registered: 2011-10-06

Posts: 67

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

~snip~
By the way I don't see any option for a DOS partition, just FAT32 or FAT16.

No you tried to fromat existing partition. You have to:

Open gparted and select your drive, on the toolbar go Device>Create Partition Table>msdos - note this will only create empty partition table not any partition.
Now create a partition and format it to *FAT*.

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~git

dxxvi

Member

Registered: 2011-07-23

Posts: 122

Re: [Solved] How to format a usb drive in Linux so that ...

~snip~
By the way I don't see any option for a DOS partition, just FAT32 or FAT16.

No you tried to fromat existing partition. You have to:

Open gparted and select your drive, on the toolbar go Device>Create Partition Table>msdos - note this will only create empty partition table not any partition.
Now create a partition and format it to *FAT*.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much :-) My problem is gone now.