GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 697813
[FR] "wipe partitions and reformat"
Last modified: 2013-06-01 08:52:12 UTC
One of our users suggested implementing a feature to restore USB flash drives to a "normal" state (MBR-style partition table with a single FAT partition for the whole device) after having used these with bootable images and dd(1); proxying the feature request as I'm registered in b.g.o already. On a side note I can arrange livecd autobuilds including recent gparted, kernel and xorg. :)
ping
Thank you Michael for your interest in GParted. As far as I know, there is not a single "normal" state for a USB flash drive. For example, some USB flash drives have an MBR whereas others do not have an MBR and instead have a single file system spanning the device. Many use FAT16 or FAT32 file systems, but some use other file systems. Some have the partition aligned to cylinder boundaries to support old operating systems like DOS, whereas others are aligned to mebibyte boundaries for increased performance and to reduce wear and tear. GParted provides the flexibility to write a variety of partition tables, create a multitude of file systems, and align partitions to either mebibyte or cylinder boundaries. As such, with a few steps GParted can already be used to: > restore USB flash drives to a "normal" state (MBR-style partition > table with a single FAT partition for the whole device) Since there is no single "normal" state for all USB flash drives, I do not see how this request can be accommodated. Have I missed something in the interpretation of this request?
Ping Michael.
My bad, sorry. I know that gparted can do that as is, the request as I understand it rather relates to some kind of "macro" that would perform a routine set of operations in a single swell foop. Given your entirely reasonable reply I'd assert that an MBR, a single MiB-aligned partition and FAT32 on that is what the person wanted. I'd also accept the upstream position that macro buttons and other "make me happy" things are not going to be implemented due to e.g. the potential for the _tool_ to become a button graveyard. Thank you for the time!
Hi Michael, > I'd also accept the upstream position that macro buttons and other "make me > happy" things are not going to be implemented due to e.g. the potential for the > _tool_ to become a button graveyard. It sounds like you understand the challenge and complexity introduced by adding single click buttons for a multitude of actions. As such I think you understand why we do not wish to do this. Closing this report as WONTFIX. Curtis
No problem. Maybe a separate Grand Flash Format Utility might help those coming from Windows to feel more comfortable, and maybe it's out there even. :)