How to Get Ubuntu to Read Exfat Disks
Users running Linux on Desktop often run into the trouble or file organisation compatibility. Particularly, when they are sharing information via a secondary storage device like an external hd or USB stick. The problem often originates considering of the proprietary nature of file systems like exFAT and NTFS. The compatibility for exFAT or NTFS generally does not come for a distro out-of-the-box. Instead, you accept to install additional packages to support these filesystem.
Things have changed since the inception of exFAT in 2006, the Ubuntu repositories at present come up with packages which back up file systems similar exFAT and so you can share files across different operating systems with ease.
Concerning exFAT
exFAT file system is Microsoft's attempt at revitalizing its ancient Fatty (and FAT32) file systems to support USB devices. exFAT is designed to specifically manage files on wink storage media with large sizes of storage, such as external USB storage and SD cards.
When I say large storage devices, I mean devices with more than a mere 4GiB of raw storage. 4GiB is the retentiveness limit for FAT32 file systems to overcome which exFAT (or extended Fat) was developed by Microsoft. Why non use NTFS you may ask?
When exFAT was created, mode dorsum in 2006, file system overheads where notwithstanding a affair. So NTFS was non a feasible solution for small storage devices because NTFS itself took quite a bit of infinite. Additionally, exFAT is notwithstanding a popular pick for embedded systems because of its depression power usage and simpler pattern which you lot tin can implement downward at the firmware level resulting in better performance.
While virtually external drives are at present NTFS, and yous are probably amend off formatting newer ones in that format, nosotros still have quite a flake of existing devices that run on exFAT and then it is ameliorate to accept an exFAT compatible arrangement than to not accept one.
exFAT compatibility
If yous stick a USB drive which is formatted with exFAT file system to, say, a Ubuntu 18.04 system and try to mount it, yous will get an fault similar to this:
To overcome this issue, we can merely install exfat-utilis package which volition enable u.s. to create, label, read and write exFAT filesystem to whatsoever device node be information technology a USB device or a hard disk partition.
$ sudo apt install exfat-utils
If you want just the read and write capabilities, use the exfat-fuse parcel alone.
$ sudo apt install exfat-fuse
The latter is also installed every bit a part of exfat-utils dependency and so you can read and write anyways. In one case that package is installed you can mount your USB device without whatever issue using either the mountain control using CLI or just use the GUI.
Either way, information technology would not crave any reboots and is quite a simple process.
About FUSE
Y'all would observe that the exfat bulldoze is named exfat-fuse. What does it mean? Filesystem in Userspace, or FUSE, means that the program that implements and manages exfat file systems runs in userspace equally opposed to running in Kernel way.
Storage management, like I/O and memory management, is a cadre responsibility of the operating system's Kernel. Different file systems in the UNIX ethos come as unlike kernel modules and do their job in the kernel mode itself. FUSE lets filesystems to run as regular applications (like a text editor or a browser) in the userspace and FUSE, itself acts every bit a bridge between the Kernel and the filesystem. This doesn't mean that you lot become to format capricious devices without root privileges.
For regular users, its stardom without a difference, only systems take a subtle manner of breaking downwards and knowing uncomplicated facts about execution mode can save attentive sysadmins a lot of hassle.
Creating exFAT file systems
Let's create a GPT characterization for a USB stick and format information technology with exfat file system. Bold you lot have installed the utilities parted and exfat-utils using the corresponding apt become control, you are ready to follow along with the steps shown below.
First, use the parted utility to give the USB device a GPT (or MBR) label. We are sticking to GPT considering information technology is manufacture standard. The USB device itself appears at the device node /dev/sdb and if you are in double y'all can utilise the command lsblk to list all the block devices and select the one that represents the storage capacity of your USB stick. In one case the device node is know, let'south say it is /dev/sdb utilise the following command to open parted utility.
$ sudo parted -a optimal /dev/sdb
(parted) mklabel gpt
The 2nd command with create a new gpt label. You will lose all the data in your USB stick, and then be very conscientious and brand certain that yous have fill-in! So utilise command print to know the size of your storage device.
In the above screenshot, it is 4010MB in size. And then let's create a partition that spans the entire storage device.
(parted) unit of measurement MB
(parted) mkpart chief i 4009
The one MB of space left before and after was something parted insisted on, in my specific case. Saying "the partion is not aligned for optimal performance" when I used 0 4010 every bit the starting and finishing points for my parition. You may have to experiment similarly.
Once the partition is made, you tin can safely quit the parted utility.
List block devices, in one case over again, would prove you a new sectionalization underneath the /dev/sdb device, this volition be /dev/sdb1.
Now we simply call the mkfs.exfat utility to format this partition with exfat file system.
$ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb1
Y'all can write some dummy files into this device, after mounting it (mounting can be done easily using the file organisation GUI). Endeavour pluggin the same USB stick into a Windows organization and if everything checks out, and so yous will be able to read from and write to this device without whatever issues.
Utility of exFAT
If you or your friends and colleagues use a Windows device alongside a Linux machine, formatting every storage media with EXT2, EXT4, XFS or ZFS or any other UNIX file arrangement might not be a great thought.
Things can go even worse if you lot apply an SD menu formatted with one of these file systems and utilize in your camera. An entire twenty-four hour period's worth of clicks would never have been recorded and you lot wouldn't realize that. exFAT, like NTFS is hands supported on both Linux and Windows and is actively existence maintained by Microsoft, ensuring widest range of applicability.
This makes exFAT a reliable span to transfer information from one organisation to another, and we hope that this guide has helped y'all sympathize better how to reach that.
Near the author
I am a tech and scientific discipline writer with quite a diverse range of interests. A potent believer of the Unix philosophy. Few of the things I am passionate virtually include system administration, computer hardware and physics.
Source: https://linuxhint.com/exfat_compatibility_ubuntu/
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