Formatting a removable disk

[Chris Perry]

The GUI for the Disks application must have been changed in the last few years so disk-format.html needs to be revised. The Disks application now seems to hide as many of the technical details as it can (which in theory I think is a good idea).

I have a problem in that when I format a USB flash drive using Disks (Ubuntu 16.04) - no error is reported during formatting - but Ubuntu then doesn't recognise the drive. When I create a partition and format it using Gparted it works fine. Ive only tried this with one USB flash drive, so the problem may be specific to that drive (or not). If Disks doesn't work correctly, we can document how to format a removable disk by using Gparted?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Yeah, the UI has indeed changed, and apparently that affects not only disk-check.page.

When changing, don't forget that there is a GNOME equivalent:
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/3.22/disk-format.html.en

After having formatted it using Disks, you only have unallocated space, so you need to also create a partition, but you can do that with Disks as well. It's Disks we should describe at first hand, since it's the tool which is included on an Ubuntu desktop by default.

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

@Gunnar. Yes I'll make a note to check what other pages need to be changed (presumably you mean other pages that describe how to use the Disks application?). I think it's straightforward to revise disk-format.html.

On a related point: it seems to me that it will be quite common for users to want to "reuse" a removable disk - that's what I wanted to do which led me to discover that disk-format.html was out of date - (the steps would be something like this: format it, create a partition, and mount the partition). Can I create a new (short) page to describe this? It can be linked to from disk.html?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I suppose it can be assumed that people always want to reuse the formatted disk. Doesn't it make more sense to include the need to create a partition on the same page? Possibly as an additional note: "Please note that you need to create a partition before the blank disk can be mounted."

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

Yes that sounds OK. Can I change the title of the page to something like "Wipe the data off a removable disk and reuse it"? My thinking is that "reuse" (or some such such word) is a task-orientated verb, so should be in the title. "Wipe" is task-orientated too but the users who want to "reuse" aren't necessarily bothered to "wipe".

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

The title you suggested makes sense to me.

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

I'll revise these pages too (revisions needed due to change to Disks GUI and apparently replacement of the Disk Utility application):

disk-partitions.html (current version of the page refers to the "Disk Utility application", etc)

disk-benchmark.html (probably very minor changes: one menu option has changed name - the page doesn't say what the user does with the benchmark results - but that is matter for another bug).

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

I can't see any more pages impacted by the changes to the Disks gui. I've had a quick look at pages that contain "Disks" or "volume" or "partition". Once the changes to disk-partitions.page are approved and pushed I'm planning to set the status of this bug to "Fix Committed".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-docs - 17.04.1

---------------
ubuntu-docs (17.04.1) zesty; urgency=medium

  * scripts/validate.sh:
    - Modified so it can be called via a symlink from 'ubuntu-help/C'
      or 'html'.
  * power-hibernate.page:
    - Changed command due to upstart->systemd transition.
  * Bump version to 17.04 / zesty.
  * html/ubuntu.xsl:
    - Make unordered lists bulleted and not numbered (LP: #1649554).
  * keyboard-layouts.page:
    - Note about how to show rarely used xkb layout variants.
  * Updated ubuntu-help.pot.
  * debian/compat, debian/control:
    - Bump to debhelper version 9

  [ Chris Perry ]
  * tips-specialchars.page:
    - Section "Compose key" updated (LP: #1624778).
  * addremove-ppa.page:
    - Revise PPA description (LP: #1628706).
  * keyboard-layouts.page:
    - Move text of marginal note.
  * mouse-middleclick.page, mouse-touchpad-click.page:
    - Revise description of middle-click from touchpad (LP: #1617718).
  * power-lowpower.page:
    - Update since related control in "System Settings -> Power" has
      been removed (LP: #1599264, LP: #1641786).
  * accounts-add.page, net-firewall-on-off.page:
    - Minor clarifications.
  * net-wireless-*.page, net-problem.page:
    - GUI conformity modifications (LP: #1637126)
    - New shared section (LP: #977251)
  * addremove-install.page, addremove-remove.page:
    - Clearer description of Ubuntu Software's focus on applications
      (LP: #1637861).
    - Mentioning of snaps (LP: #1658785).
  * printing-setup.page:
    - Section about network printer added (LP: #1630272).
  * mouse-mousekeys.page:
    - Improved description of mouse keys (LP: #964727).
  * disk-*.page:
    - GUI conformity modifications (LP: #1651360).
  * List type explicitly stated on multiple pages.
  * addremove-creator.page:
    - New page describing Startup Disk Creator (LP: #1569532).
  * security-settings.page:
    - New page describing the Security & Privacy panel in System
      Settings (LP: #1200381).

  [ Doug Smythies ]
  * scripts/validate.sh:
    - Changed to --strict validation.
  * ubuntu-help/C/legal.xml:
    - Specify https to avoid a "permanently moved" redirection.

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:11:00 +0100