[SOLVED] MicroSD Formatting Options

[ajgringo619]

I just received a MicroSD XC 256GB card I was planning on using with my phone. It turns out that's it's too big, so I figured I'd use it with my Mint 19 system as another backup device. It came formatted with FAT32, which doesn't work with the large image files I plan on storing there.

What I thought would be a simple job (format the device as EXT4) has become a royal PITA. I've tried at least 4 different filesystems, and the only one that works is FAT32. EXT4 and BTRFS both hung until I force-killed the processes; NTFS completed but the filesystem was corrupted and wouldn't mount; FAT32 completed as expected.

I haven't found anything that says I can't format this device the way I want, but it's just not working.

[JerryF]

Have you tried using Gparted to create the new formatted disk?

If you're going to use it as storage only for Mint, I'd format it as EXT2. It doesn't use journaling, so it won't write as often to the card.

[ajgringo619]

Have you tried using Gparted to create the new formatted disk?

If you're going to use it as storage only for Mint, I'd format it as EXT2. It doesn't use journaling, so it won't write as often to the card.

gparted crashed as hard as gnome-disks and fdisk/mkfs.ext4. I will give EXT2 a try tomorrow.

[smurphos]

It is a branded card or a generic 'low-cost' one? If the latter it might be a dud.

[ajgringo619]

It is a branded card or a generic 'low-cost' one? If the latter it might be a dud.

It's dead. I just tried to copy a bunch of ISO images to it and it completely hung after the 1st file was complete. You get what you pay for, right?