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I firmly believe that a simple tool to format removable (USB, Firewire and maybe even floppies) discs is LONG overdue to be added as a standard KDE app.

Look at the massive popularity of USB flash drives and USB MP3 players- almost everybody has one (in the UK at least). In 2009 all common desktop tasks should be easily achieved without resorting to the terminal and this list of common tasks most certainly involves formatting removable discs- in fact this long standing missing feature is one of the very few reasons I still can't unreservedly recommend Linux to non-techies. This has been a standard feature in that other OS for over a decade.

gparted is total overkill and not really suitable, before anyone mentions it, not least because it seems to be unable to label disks.

What we need is to be able to right-click the icon for removable disc, choose format, choose if you want FAT16 or FAT32 (with maybe an ext2/3/4 option for good measure?), enter the name of the volume, push the Format button and then you will be asked for confirmation before the format takes place.

I would very much appreciate being able to choose if I want FAT16 or 32 and not have the tool choose for me based upon the size of the volume or have it place uneccessary restrictions like the Windows format tool- I've got a 250GB USB HD here thats formatted as FAT16 as thats how it shipped from the factory.

Thanks to the KDE devs for listening to my suggestions!

I am agree with you but I think if we started in this direction, we should consider build an app like "Disk Utility" on Mac OS X which enable to manage hard drive and CD/DVD only for advanced tasks (rewrite, burn ISO, format, resize).
I think it is a lack on KDE (but I am not a developer) and I remember I should install Gparted to mange easlily partition (and install gtk libs only for an app....).

florentg

PS : I remember Gparted used to manage labels. I used the live version on my Mac and I could add "boot" on partition.... Except if you didn't mean the same thing about label. I can be wrong....

in Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 there is such a tool:

partition manager for KDE

Partitionmanager allows you to manage your disks, partitions and file systems.
It has the ability to create, copy, backup & restore partitions through a KDE
interface while supporting many different file systems (ext2, ext3, NTFS,
FAT32, reiserfs & more).

jtsop wrote:in Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 there is such a tool:

partition manager for KDE

Partitionmanager allows you to manage your disks, partitions and file systems.
It has the ability to create, copy, backup & restore partitions through a KDE
interface while supporting many different file systems (ext2, ext3, NTFS,
FAT32, reiserfs & more).

I haven't tried partitionmanager yet but I can see that, like gparted, it also uses libparted to do its stuff. I'm running gparted / libparted under intrepid and I don't know if libparted has added the feature since but you cannot label a drive under gparted- for that you would need to resort to the terminal.

Even if partitionmanager can do that, it isn't integrated into KDE/Konqueror/Dolphin as it it should be- as a standard feature of a modern, user-friendly desktop.

It could also have support for checking disks errors (and fixing them), specially for USB devices.

mootchie wrote:It could also have support for checking disks errors (and fixing them), specially for USB devices.

+1

I installed the partition manager in my alpha Kubuntu.

The app enables format, verify and backup partition. I think the problem is solves because this app is very easy to use. Maybe the solution, if we need an action in the file manager (right button - format like Windows) should be to implement maybe with a KIO-Slave

florentg

tool like KFloppy

It seem someone works on this !

http://blog.uninstall.it/2009/05/13/kfo ... kit-disks/

A "shotcut" under (un)mount in dolphing would be great too

danboid wrote:I haven't tried partitionmanager yet but I can see that, like gparted, it also uses libparted to do its stuff. I'm running gparted / libparted under intrepid and I don't know if libparted has added the feature since but you cannot label a drive under gparted- for that you would need to resort to the terminal.

Both gparted and the kde partitioner support labelling partitions.

danboid wrote:Even if partitionmanager can do that, it isn't integrated into KDE/Konqueror/Dolphin as it it should be- as a standard feature of a modern, user-friendly desktop.

I don't understand why this should be easy. Formatting a disc is a rare and dangerous action. In my opinion things integrated into dolphin are things that are done often, moving files, copying files, deleting files, creating files, opening files, mounting and unmounting discs, etc. How often do people really need to format a disc? Ideally this should only be once or twice per disc. I don't think it should be something integrated into dolphin, in fact I think making it that easy is extraordinarily dangerous. I think it belongs in system settings, which is exactly where it is right now.

Thanks to Davide Bettio we may have a solution to this: http://blog.uninstall.it/2009/05/13/kfo ... kit-disks/

TheBlackCat wrote:I don't understand why this should be easy. Formatting a disc is a rare and dangerous action. In my opinion things integrated into dolphin are things that are done often, moving files, copying files, deleting files, creating files, opening files, mounting and unmounting discs, etc. How often do people really need to format a disc? Ideally this should only be once or twice per disc. I don't think it should be something integrated into dolphin, in fact I think making it that easy is extraordinarily dangerous. I think it belongs in system settings, which is exactly where it is right now.

I know some people who uses format as easier way to clean flash drive.

On my photo camera to delete all flash card memory takes ~2mins, to format ~10secs.

I know that formating instead of deleting is not the best solution I think format tool should have an button "Erase disk" even deleting is not part of formating tools.

The bugs.kde.org report was marked as wontfix, so I am updating this idea reflect that.