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From: General Schvantzkoph on 20 Dec 2009 21:42
On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:34:11 -0800, Vwaju wrote:

> On Dec 20, 4:58 pm, General Schvantzkoph <schvantzk...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:14:14 -0800, Vwaju wrote:
>> > I want to backup /home on my Slackware Linux 12.2 installation before
>> > upgrading.
>>
>> > I have a Dane Elec 2GB USB stick for the back up.
>>
>> > $fdisk sda
>>
>> > displays
>>
>> >         ID:  6
>> > System:  FAT16
>>
>> > for this stick.
>>
>> > Do I need to create a Linux partition (ID: 83) before I can use the
>> > stick to backup /home?
>>
>> > Thanks & Best Regards,
>>
>> > Vwaju
>> > New York City
>>
>> Use gparted to reformat it to EXT3. There is no reason to ever use
>> FAT16, if it's important to you to be able to plug it into a Windows
>> box then format it to FAT32, but EXT3 is a much better file system.
>> Linux will mount the stick with just about any file system but there is
>> no reason to use an inefficient one if you don't have to.
>
> Thanks for your helpful comments, General. gparted is not in the
> Slackware 12.2 installation. Couldn't I use fdisk? (Or is there
> another utility that I could/should use?)
>
> Best, Vwaju

fdisk is fine, so is regular parted, or you could just use mke2fs.
From: Joe Pfeiffer on 21 Dec 2009 01:46
General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph(a)yahoo.com> writes:

> On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:34:11 -0800, Vwaju wrote:
>
>> On Dec 20, 4:58�pm, General Schvantzkoph <schvantzk...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:14:14 -0800, Vwaju wrote:
>>> > I want to backup /home on my Slackware Linux 12.2 installation before
>>> > upgrading.
>>>
>>> > I have a Dane Elec 2GB USB stick for the back up.
>>>
>>> > $fdisk sda
>>>
>>> > displays
>>>
>>> > � � � � ID: �6
>>> > System: �FAT16
>>>
>>> > for this stick.
>>>
>>> > Do I need to create a Linux partition (ID: 83) before I can use the
>>> > stick to backup /home?
>>>
>>> > Thanks & Best Regards,
>>>
>>> > Vwaju
>>> > New York City
>>>
>>> Use gparted to reformat it to EXT3. There is no reason to ever use
>>> FAT16, if it's important to you to be able to plug it into a Windows
>>> box then format it to FAT32, but EXT3 is a much better file system.
>>> Linux will mount the stick with just about any file system but there is
>>> no reason to use an inefficient one if you don't have to.
>>
>> Thanks for your helpful comments, General. gparted is not in the
>> Slackware 12.2 installation. Couldn't I use fdisk? (Or is there
>> another utility that I could/should use?)
>>
>> Best, Vwaju
>
> fdisk is fine, so is regular parted, or you could just use mke2fs.

Though, of course, partioning it and setting the partition type is one
operation while putting a file system on it is another. So, for
instance, you would use fdisk to repartition it, and then e2fsck to put
the file system on.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
From: Lew Pitcher on 21 Dec 2009 10:51
On December 20, 2009 16:14, in comp.os.linux.hardware, slack(a)rcn.com wrote:

> I want to backup /home on my Slackware Linux 12.2 installation before
> upgrading.
>
> I have a Dane Elec 2GB USB stick for the back up.
>
> $fdisk sda
>
> displays
>
> ID: 6
> System: FAT16
>
> for this stick.
>
> Do I need to create a Linux partition (ID: 83) before I can use the
> stick to backup /home?

No, but you /can/.

First and foremost, you need a filesystem that supports Unix file attributes
(UID, GID, permission bits, etc.). You can either
- format the USB stick with a UNIXish filesystem (ext2, minix, ...) or
- format a loopback file on the FAT16 fs with a unixish filesystem
Make this choice first.

If you choose to wipe the entire USB stick, then you can chose to either
- partition the USB stick, or
- use the entire USB stick, unpartitioned

If you choose to partition the entire USB stick, then you will probably want
to flag the Linux fs partitions with the LINUX partition ID before you
format the partition with your UNIXish filesystem.

If you choose to use the entire USB stick, unpartitioned, then you format
the entire device with your UNIXish filesystem, because in such a
situation, there /is no/ partition type.

If you choose to use a loopback file on the USB stick, then you only need to
format the file with the UNIXish filesystem; your partition type (if there
is one) should remain FAT16

HTH
--
Lew Pitcher
Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | Registered Linux User #112576
Me: http://pitcher.digitalfreehold.ca/ | Just Linux: http://justlinux.ca/
---------- Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing. ------


From: Charlie Gibbs on 21 Dec 2009 11:59
In article <7p7l12F5niU1(a)mid.individual.net>, schvantzkoph(a)yahoo.com
(General Schvantzkoph) writes:

> On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:14:14 -0800, Vwaju wrote:

<snip>

>> Do I need to create a Linux partition (ID: 83) before I can use the
>> stick to backup /home?
>
> Use gparted to reformat it to EXT3. There is no reason to ever use
> FAT16, if it's important to you to be able to plug it into a Windows
> box then format it to FAT32, but EXT3 is a much better file system.
> Linux will mount the stick with just about any file system but there
> is no reason to use an inefficient one if you don't have to.

This might be a bit off-topic, but has anyone noticed reliability
problems when adding large files to a FAT16-formatted memory stick?
I have a 2GB stick which I use to back up files from my Windows system
at work; I've found that if I write a lot more data (several hundred
megabytes) to a partially filled stick from a Windows box, some of the
files will often encounter strange (and unrecoverable) errors when I
try to read them back. At first I thought that my stick was going bad
and got another one - but the second one did exactly the same thing.
The only way I can get reliable results is to format the stick each
time I write a lot of data to it, although I can add a few small files
later without problems.

I now suspect that the problem is either in the Windows drivers,
or is due to some design defect in the FAT16 file system. My
Linux boxes can read and write the FAT16 sticks with no trouble,
although I continue to avoid adding large amounts of data to a
partly-filled stick.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is it another example
of typical Microsoft quality control?

--
/~\ cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855.
/ \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

From: Stefan Patric on 21 Dec 2009 13:23
On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:58:58 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:14:14 -0800, Vwaju wrote:
>
>> I want to backup /home on my Slackware Linux 12.2 installation before
>> upgrading.
>>
>> I have a Dane Elec 2GB USB stick for the back up.
>>
>> $fdisk sda
>>
>> displays
>>
>> ID: 6
>> System: FAT16
>>
>> for this stick.
>>
>> Do I need to create a Linux partition (ID: 83) before I can use the
>> stick to backup /home?
>>
>> Thanks & Best Regards,
>>
>> Vwaju
>> New York City
>
> Use gparted to reformat it to EXT3. There is no reason to ever use
> FAT16, if it's important to you to be able to plug it into a Windows box
> then format it to FAT32, but EXT3 is a much better file system. Linux
> will mount the stick with just about any file system but there is no
> reason to use an inefficient one if you don't have to.

Also, you won't need journaling. So, don't use the -j option when
formatting the USB stick to ext3.


Stef
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