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senjin

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Registered: 2006-09-15

Posts: 181

Website

Partitioning usb drive

I have bought usb drive (samsung s1 mini). I want to partition it, so I will have fat32 partition for windows, reiserfs or ext3 for Linux, and maybe another encrypted partition. I couldn't find helpful information in web about how to do this. I read somewhere, that the fat32 partition must be the first, otherwise windows won't recognize it. Is that true?

And now, the most important question: how to remove the drive safely? Is it sufficient to umount all the mounted partitions? This is portable hard disk (not flash stick), do I need any extra commands to spin it down?

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Partitioning usb drive

I have bought usb drive (samsung s1 mini). I want to partition it, so I will have fat32 partition for windows, reiserfs or ext3 for Linux, and maybe another encrypted partition. I couldn't find helpful information in web about how to do this. I read somewhere, that the fat32 partition must be the first, otherwise windows won't recognize it. Is that true?

Although I am not 100% sure about the order, I have had an usb stick where I had two partitions, one fat, one ext2, and windows always recognized the fat one fine. I also had an usb disk with three partitions, ntfs (1st), fat (2nd) and ext2 (3rd), and windows had seen the first two fine. So I'd say it's a rumor without any real truth to it.

As far as partitioning goes - any standard partitioning tool would do (fdisk, cfdisk, parted, ...)

And now, the most important question: how to remove the drive safely? Is it sufficient to umount all the mounted partitions? This is portable hard disk (not flash stick), do I need any extra commands to spin it down?

There's one more step that you might want to do, namely run 'eject /dev/<whatever_your_disk_is>' (for instance 'eject /dev/sdb') - that is recommended for example for ipod, that's how they know that they are being disconnected; before that they show the "do not disconnect" message. However, I think it's OK to just unmount and unplug the drive.

senjin

Member

Registered: 2006-09-15

Posts: 181

Website

Re: Partitioning usb drive

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know about the eject trick. I was a bit worried, because the drive is still working even if I 'eject' it (I can hear it), but it's the same in Windows when I "remove the device safely" which is the method recommended in the manual (of course they don't even mention Linux...). By the way, the drive is very quiet, you need to put it close to your ear to hear the sound.

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: Partitioning usb drive

I had a usbstick formatted with an ext2 partition first, then a fat16 partition.  Windows refused to see the 2nd partition.  I'm starting to think Windows is just arrogant and expects to be first over all because I also had issues when I put my sata drives in the order of - Linux drive 1st sata connector, Windows drive on the second connector.  Nothing else in my system complained, just Windows itself. 

From all this I deduce that either I am cursed (always possible I pissed off some shaman in Africa) or Windows is arrogant & picky as hell or I'm an idiot.  (I'm leaning to the last one so far).

firecat53

Member

From: Lake Stevens, WA, USA

Registered: 2007-05-14

Posts: 1,542

Website

Re: Partitioning usb drive

I'm pretty certain that you need a windows partition first (vfat or ntfs) on the disk. I have a handy drive that has the first partition as ntfs for use as a flash drive, and the second partition as a bootable larch partition. Multi purpose and very handy!

Scott

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