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I have recently bought a USB, which is initially formatted using exFAT. Then I tried wiping it off and format it with ext4. But then, Linux Mint 20 doesn't seem to be able to mount it. When I checked the "disks" utility, the USB appeared, but it just displayed the loading loop. I tried to cancel the mount job, no luck either. Then I tried a live Linux Mint 19, also can't open the USB, so this is clearly not a problem with my existing computer.

Then I booted up my Windows copy (dual boot with Mint 20), plugged the USB in, formatted it to exFAT, and Windows can then open it. Then I boot up Mint 20 and live Mint 19 and both can open it. So my question is, do USB manufacturers restrict the type of filesystems a USB can have? I have never heard of this phenomenon, and can you give me some source to read more?

157 239n
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So I have dug into this a whole lot for the past few days and I think I know what's wrong. I tried to create an ext4 partition, didn't work. I then tried to fix it using fsck, also no dice. Then I tried to create an ext4 partition with less size (60GB), and then it works, with no corruption. It turns out that I just got scammed by the manufacturer.

157 239n
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  • Hi, I have similar issue. I don't understand your solution. What was the initial size of your pendrive? Is it about resizing partition, so it will not take the entire usb, or is it about file system? – s-kaczmarek Nov 08 '20 at 17:01
  • @s-kaczmarek So the advertised volume is 1TB, but turns out in reality it only has 64GB of space. So when I do all shenanigans with the whole 1TB, nothing works well, but if I do everything with 60GB only, leaving 4GB for some overhead, everything works well. What I did was just wipe the drive clean, then create a new 60GB partition, then format it with a specific filesystem as usual. I didn't really resize anything. If you need more details, I can PM you. – 157 239n Nov 09 '20 at 21:14
  • for me, creating new partition with the size of entire usb drive with ntfs file system works fine. It seems like pen drives don't really like other file systems. – s-kaczmarek Nov 17 '20 at 21:11
  • Oh so if you are using Windows, then it can only read NTFS partitions, which may explain why pen drives don't like other partitions. Historically, pen drives like FAT, FAT32 and exFAT only. – 157 239n Nov 18 '20 at 02:12