On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 18:55, Alan Cox <alan(a)lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
No another meaningless option that wouldn't actually do
anything.
If you want to blank a drive into a new file system format you just need
to be sure to clean up any confusing superblocks and get the type right.
For the same fs you will hit the metadata anyway.
And if you want to blank a disk you need to issue a security erase
command, not just overwrite the data. The latter does not do what you
would always want on modern storage systems, particularly flash.
Alan
Yes "blank a drive" aka "formatting" it.
With the same file system it previously had. (fat32).
Doesn´t need to be a "full format", a "quick format" would do.
Let´s please not get into semantics here. If you say "reformat a
removable drive" everybody knows what it means. It is not
repartitioning, it is not low-level formating, it is not "secure"
erasing all data so that no files can be recovered, it´s just, well,
formatting... erasing its contents... like a "format e: /q" does in
windows.
Notice how all posts, are titled "formatting"
http://linuxwave.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-to-format-your-flash-drive.html
Even while in the end the tutorials tell to use mkfs...
So, I maintain my original comment... I think it should be possible
from the Gnome GUI to right click and select an option to "format" the
drive (who partitions a thumb drive?? 99.9999% are used in a
single-partition mode)
Hey, look here
http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/disk-format.html.en
"If you have a removable disk like a USB memory stick or an external
hard disk, you may wish to completely remove all of the files you have
on there. You can do this by formatting the disk - this deletes all of
the files on the disk and leaves it empty."
Wow, plain English. No misconceptions about what formatting means. :)
So let me rephrase my original post: on removable drives, shouldn´t
there be a "Format" option (or "wipe" if you wish) that invokes ´disk
utility´ with the right params to beggin formatting it?.
FC