8GB USB Stick - Partitioning Recommendations?

[craig1410]

Hi guys,
I've just picked up an 8GB USB flash drive from dabs.com (only £15!) and would appreciate some suggestions on how best to partition it. My previous flash drive was only 512MB so a single partition was the only sensible option but this is a bit different.

I have an iMac at home, and an iBook which I use quite a bit while waiting for my kids at the local swimming club. I also work as an IT professional but sadly have to use Windows XP/Vista on my work laptop. I'm also a Linux user, having a Fedora 8 server for home email/web etc.

So, has anyone out there found the ideal mix of partitioning and filesystem mix to suit this sort of scenario? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Also, any general dos and don'ts would be appreciated.

It just seems lazy to leave it as an 8GB FAT32 partition...

Thanks in advance,
Craig.

 

[Julien]

...It just seems lazy to leave it as an 8GB FAT32 partition...

Thanks in advance,
Craig.

Since FAT32 is read/write on both XP/OS X lazy is the way to go.

 

[brand]

Format it as a single FAT32 partition. I also work in the network department for a college, using both Macs and PCs, and that is how my 16GB flash drive is formatted. It makes it very handy when working on cross platform computers.

 

[craig1410]

Format it as a single FAT32 partition. I also work in the network department for a college, using both Macs and PCs, and that is how my 16GB flash drive is formatted. It makes it very handy when working on cross platform computers.

Hi,
Thanks for that (you too Julien), I just wondered if there was any advantage in taking a different approach. I suppose if I wanted a secure area, for example, I could always create a secure disk image file on the flash drive and access that from my Mac.

Okay, will stick with FAT32 for now unless anyone else comes up with a compelling argument for another setup.

Thanks again,
Craig.

 

[alphaod]

Use NTFS?

 

[KingYaba]

Just leave it as one.

 

[MacDawg]

Hi,
I suppose if I wanted a secure area, for example, I could always create a secure disk image file on the flash drive and access that from my Mac.

That would be the way to go in my opinion

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[mkrishnan]

Okay, will stick with FAT32 for now unless anyone else comes up with a compelling argument for another setup.

The only other option I'd throw out is, if it's beneficial to you, partition the USB drive so that you can place a bootable live / ISO installation of Linux on it. I find that it's handy to have one around occasionally (if you are in a situation say where you want to use another computer but you want the Fedora environment), and it gives me some disaster recovery capabilities for my Linux computer. Also if I ever want to test out a new version or distribution, I can just put it on there. I don't remember how Fedora handles persistence, but the typical setup for this would be either:

1x 750MB FAT partition for Linux
1x Balance for flash storage

or

1x 750MB FAT partition for Linux ISO
1X 250MB ext partition for Linux persistence
1x balance for flash storage

I have a 4GB USB drive set up in the latter way, and I keep an extra Ubuntu installation on it....

 

[craig1410]

The only other option I'd throw out is, if it's beneficial to you, partition the USB drive so that you can place a bootable live / ISO installation of Linux on it. I find that it's handy to have one around occasionally (if you are in a situation say where you want to use another computer but you want the Fedora environment), and it gives me some disaster recovery capabilities for my Linux computer. Also if I ever want to test out a new version or distribution, I can just put it on there. I don't remember how Fedora handles persistence, but the typical setup for this would be either:

1x 750MB FAT partition for Linux
1x Balance for flash storage

or

1x 750MB FAT partition for Linux ISO
1X 250MB ext partition for Linux persistence
1x balance for flash storage

I have a 4GB USB drive set up in the latter way, and I keep an extra Ubuntu installation on it....

Good suggestion - I was planning to just use my entire old 512MB flash drive for this purpose albeit without the persistence partition. Although at the price of flash drives these days I might just buy a 2GB or 4GB one for this purpose...

Thanks,
Craig