Re: Reformatting little USB-harddisks

[Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 9:13 AM, herbert langhans <w3%langhans.com.pl@localhost> wrote:
> Hi List,
> you sure know these little external USB-harddisks, often used for laptops
> or basic backups. Like WD-Passport and Seagate Expansion and whatever
> they name them.
>
> They come FAT formatted, right? Has anyone of you tried to
> reformat them for NetBSD? I guess its not a big thing, but I wonder if I
> can buy any brand (need it for portable server backup and need GID/UID) or
> there are some models what make trouble with formatting, partitioning or
> mounting.
>
> I had some trouble with USB-Sticks. Thats another story, but close
> enough the be alert just buying any plug n play solution what may not
> work later.
>

Most of these that I've used work just fine. You end up mounting them
as /dev/sdXe and use mount_msdos. /dev/sdXe is just a made up
disklabel that the machine makes to temporarily deal with it.

Some come formatted with ExFAT now which is not compatible with
NetBSD, and might never be as far as I know.

You can wipe them and use fdisk and disklabel to turn them into "real"
NetBSD disks without any problem. There might be a few that cause
issues but most work in my experience.

Andy