I've recently tried a number 1 or 2TB external hard drives on USB as backup and hoping to use for deja-dup. The one I had previously was fine but it's full and I don't want to loose it. I've tried both SSD and old fashioned type drive. I got them online from ebay etc about £20. Problem is they are formatted exFat and, as I understand it, that is not ok for Ubuntu. I've tried to format as Ext4 or NTFS but they don't format right. It usually involves waiting a very long time to finish up with I/O errors and drive unusable. Is there a reason why modern external USB hard drives cannot be formatted on Ubuntu (20.04)? or have I just been really unlucky and managed to buy three bad drives all in a row? Tried gParted. I've even tried formatting on a Windows7 PC but still I cannot get any of the drives back to working.
Answers
Problem is they are formatted exFat and, as I understand it, that is not ok for Ubuntu.
Not really a problem BUT you do need to install a driver for it. Command to issue:
sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils
It is the default filesystem if you want the best support over all operating systems.
It usually involves waiting a very long time to finish up with I/O errors and drive unusable. or have I just been really unlucky and managed to buy three bad drives all in a row? I've even tried formatting on a Windows7 PC but still I cannot get any of the drives back to working.
That seems fishy to me: it might be the cable or the connector on your system and not the drives itself but if 3 drives do not work and you format with multiple filesystems and on two different operating systems ... those drives are bad.
There is a tool you can use:
sudo badblocks -wvs /dev/sdx
or
sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sdx
where x is your drive letter (fdisk -l to list all).
That will quickly tell you if the disks are healthy. A full scan of 1Tb will also take an hour ;)
