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Storage Format (Linux) ​

Required Reading ​

This is an add-on section for formatting a storage device for use with the StorageMgr kernel plugin.

Additionally, there is an optional section for checking your storage device for errors using F3. Depending on the size of your storage device and the speed of your computer, the checking process can take up to several hours!

This page is for Linux users only. If you are not on Linux, check out the Storage Format (Windows) or Storage Format (Mac) pages.

What You Need ​

  • The latest version of exfat-utils for your distribution (check your package manager)
  • The latest version of fuse-exfat for your distribution (check your package manager)
  • The latest version of F3
    • This is not required if you do not want to check your storage device for errors

Instructions ​

Section I - Formatting Storage Device ​

  1. Insert your storage device into your computer
  2. Unmount your storage device with umount
  3. Run sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX to wipe the storage device
    • sdX should be the device corresponding to your storage device
  4. Remove your storage device from your computer
  5. Re-insert your storage device into your computer
  6. Run mkfs.exfat /dev/sdX to format your storage device as exFAT
    • If your storage device has a capacity of 256 GB or greater, you must format with a cluster size of 64 KB

Section II - Verifying Storage Device ​

If you do not want to check your storage device for errors, skip this section.

  1. Unzip the f3 .zip file
  2. cd into the f3 directory
  3. Run make to compile F3
  4. Insert your storage device into your computer
  5. Mount your storage device
  6. Run ./f3write <your storage device mount point>
  7. Wait until the process is complete. See below for an example output.
bash
$ ./f3write /media/michel/6135-3363/
Free space: 29.71 GB
Creating file 1.h2w ... OK!
...
Creating file 30.h2w ... OK!
Free space: 0.00 Byte
Average Writing speed: 4.90 MB/s
  1. Run ./f3read <your storage device mount point>
  2. Wait until the process is complete. See below for an example output.
bash
$ ./f3read /media/michel/6135-3363/
									SECTORS      ok/corrupted/changed/overwritten
Validating file 1.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0
...
Validating file 30.h2w ... 1491904/        0/      0/      0

	Data OK: 29.71 GB (62309312 sectors)
Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
					Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
	Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
				Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
Average Reading speed: 9.42 MB/s

If the test shows the result Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors) your storage device is good and you can delete all .h2w files on your storage device.

If the test shows any other results, your storage device may be corrupted or damaged and you may have to replace it!

TIP

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