[SOLVED] Best format option for small SD card

[relztrah]

I'm using MX on an old ASUS mini-laptop.It has a slot for a SD card. I have a spare SD card so I thought I would stick it in there and just leave it to store files. Also, I could download a PDF to the SD card, remove it, insert it into my tablet and read the PDF offline.

I see there is a format USB feature which defaults to FAT32. Would that be the best option for this SD card? QSI below.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-31-amd64 [6.1.128-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-31-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto September 15  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: T100TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T100TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: T100TA.304 date: 03/14/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 18.7 Wh (56.5%) condition: 33.1/30.6 Wh (108.0%) volts: 3.7 min: 3.8
    model: Intel SR 1 SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging cycles: 21
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Atom Z3740 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Silvermont level: v2 built: 2013-15
    process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x37 (55) stepping: 3 microcode: 0x31E
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 224 KiB desc: d-4x24 KiB; i-4x32 KiB
    L2: 2 MiB desc: 2x1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 972 high: 1635 min/max: 533/1866 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1635 2: 764 3: 702 4: 787 bogomips: 10666
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7 process: Intel 22nm built: 2012-13 ports: active: DSI-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0f31 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1368x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 362x204mm (14.25x8.03") s-diag: 416mm (16.36")
  Monitor-1: DSI-1 res: 1368x768 hz: 60 size: N/A modes: 1368x768
  API: OpenGL v: 4.2 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (BYT) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Message: No device data found.
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-31-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Message: No PCI device data found.
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 58.25 GiB used: 12.39 GiB (21.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk2 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: SK Hynix model: HCG8e size: 58.25 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0x6 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 58 GiB size: 56.79 GiB (97.91%) used: 12.39 GiB (21.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p2 maj-min: 179:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 314 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p1 maj-min: 179:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 1024 MiB used: 279.8 MiB (27.3%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2158 libs: 1072 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
    1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
  Processes: 237 Uptime: 23m wakeups: 1 Memory: 1.81 GiB used: 1.49 GiB (82.2%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[mxer]

Just about any OS will read FAT32, so yes, probably a good option.

[Nokkaelaein]

Yep, FAT32 is very common in cases like this. Just remember, if you need to store large files like some ISOs and so on, files cannot be four GiB or larger. (In other words, four gibibytes as in ye olde "powers of two gigabytes", i.e. 4,294,967,296 bytes.)

[m_pav]

The exFAT file system was designed specifically as a Flash memory type friendly File System, it is universally supported and it can hold large files. This is my default for any flash type drive designated for universal compatibility between most all known OS's. One thing to keep in mind though is, only Windows and Mac can perform a repair scan if it becomes corrupted.

[Michael-IDA]

download a PDF to the SD card, remove it, insert it into my tablet and read the PDF offline.
best option for this SD card?

What the tablet will read...

But if you have a choice, I'd go with what @m_pav said and use an exFAT, as pretty much anything should be able to read it.

[relztrah]

download a PDF to the SD card, remove it, insert it into my tablet and read the PDF offline.
best option for this SD card?

What the tablet will read...

But if you have a choice, I'd go with what @m_pav said and use an exFAT, as pretty much anything should be able to read it.

It's a Samsung tablet running Android 7.1.1. (I use old hardware until it no longer works. I do the same with vehicles.) Would the file system matter when the SD card is inserted into the tablet? The only files I'll be copying and reading on the tablet are PDFs.

Thanks for all replies.

[Michael-IDA]

Would the file system matter when the SD card is inserted into the tablet?

Yeah, if the tablet doesn't 'do' a file system then it can't read what's on the SD

Two quickest options:

a) Stick the SD card as is in the laptop, copy a PDF to it, and stick it in the tablet.

Edit: lol, first make sure the SD card doesn't have anything on it you need before formatting
b) Just format it with FAT32 or exFAT, copy a PDF to it, and stick it in the tablet.

If either work, you're done!

As long as both can read the SD you're pretty much golden. For just transferring PDFs, music, or other small files, the actual file system won't matter much. If you're going to transfer huge 2+ (4+? *) Gig movies or something, then yeah FAT32 wouldn't work

Best,
Michael

* Yeah, don't remember

[fan_of_LTS]

I recently thought exFAT was a good choice for taking pictures to get them printed but the photo printer didn't read exFAT. Recall also that FAT32 has short file naming so you might have to be creative with renaming.

I leave an SD card in my laptop to keep data on and back it up regularly to another drive. I settled on ext4 in case I need to save any Linux permissions and use LUKS so it is encrypted. It's too easy to remove quickly so consider encrypting it.

[DukeComposed]

Recall also that FAT32 has short file naming so you might have to be creative with renaming.

FAT32 supports long file names up to 255 characters.

[fan_of_LTS]

FAT32 supports long file names up to 255 characters.

Doh! It's been quite awhile since I used FAT. I recently browsed some old backups and found files with the old 8.3 naming with tildas. That browsing reminded me that I need to find Linux options to open some of my old files.

Thanks