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I'm using Gnome's Disks program 2 format my USB flash drive. I want only 1, 0700 Microsoft basic data partition, covering the whole disk. The disk will be used to transfer 2-8GB video files between Windows and Linux computers.

I want exFAT file system on this partition.

It is important for me to specify the block/cluster size, because I'll have large files on this disk, so I want big clusters, not this small 4KB or 8KB clusters/blocks.

In Windows 10/11 there is a dialog box for setting this cluster/block size.

But I can't find the same dialog box in Disks program, that I'm using, to make this partitions and create this file systems.

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Is it there, and if not, how can I create the filesystem I need (exFAT) with the block size I want (128KB or 256KB) using terminal.

Is there any difference if I use 'gdisk' over 'fdisk' or is it the same?

michal roesler
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2 Answers2

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fdisk and gdisk manipulate partition tables, these commands do not create filesystems. The correct command-line tool to create an exFAT filesystem is mksf.exfat.

In Ubuntu 22.04 and above mkfs.exfat is part of the package exfatprogs, in Ubuntu 20,04 it is part of the package exfat-utils.

You should also have the package exfat-fuse installed.

Please read the manual man mkfs.exfat after installation of the necessary packages, so you will be able to create the command up to yor needs.

mook765
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mkexfatfs - create an exFAT file system

SYNOPSIS

  mkexfatfs  [ -i volume-id ] [ -n volume-name ] [ -p partition-first-sector ] [ -s sectors-
   per-cluster ] [ -v ] device

DESCRIPTION

mkexfatfs creates an exFAT file system on a block device. device is a special file corresponding to the device.

OPTIONS

   Command line options available:

-i volume-id
          A 32-bit hexadecimal number. By default a value based on current time is set.


-n volume-name
          Volume name (label), up to 15 characters. By default no label is set.


-p partition-first-sector
          First sector of the partition starting from the beginning of the whole disk.  exFAT
          super block has a field for this value but in  fact  it's  optional  and  does  not
          affect anything. Default is 0.


-s sectors-per-cluster
          Number  of  physical  sectors per cluster (cluster is an allocation unit in exFAT).
          Must be a power of 2, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. Cluster size  can  not  exceed  32  MB.
          Default cluster sizes are: 4 KB if volume size is less than 256 MB, 32 KB if volume
          size is from 256 MB to 32 GB, 128 KB if volume size is 32 GB or larger.


-v     Print version and copyright.

mkexfatfs

Talaat Etman
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