Formatting SD cards

Formatting SD cards

The Pandora OS can read cards formatted with various filesystems including ext2, ext3, ext4, fat32.

For NTFS, the Community Codec Pack must be installed.

If you have access to a desktop computer, it's a good idea to use the Panasonic SD Formatter, which can improve performance of SD cards.

SD cards perform much better when the partitions are aligned correctly, starting at 4MB. You can fix a badly partitioned SD card using the Panasonic SD Formatter, or using parted:

Dev=/dev/mmcblk0   # or mmcblk1 for 2nd slot
FS=ext4            # or fat32
sudo parted -s $Dev mklabel msdos
sudo parted -s $Dev unit cyl mkpart primary $FS -- 0 -2

ext3

To format a card ext3, insert the card into the Pandora, then open terminal, and type: [1]

sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0 # (use mmcblk1 for the second slot)

# 't' then '83' to change the partition type to linux, then 'w' to save.

sudo mkfs.ext3 -m 0 /dev/mmcblk0p1 # (use mmcblk1p1 for the second slot)

If you want to set a volume name then type:

sudo mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -L volumename /dev/mmcblk0p1

FAT32

The software to format FAT32 is not included with the Pandora, but can be easily installed. Open terminal, and type: [2][3]

sudo opkg update
sudo opkg install dosfstools

Once installed, you can format a card like so:

sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 # (or mmcblk1p1 for the second slot)

Using a windows box

Use this.

Using a live CD on a PC

Use this.