Formatting used hard drive Linux Mint

Hillbilly H

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i installed a used 2tb western digital formatted to EXT4 using a usb/sata docking station.
After installing the newly formatted drive it has a file named (lost+found) it has two boxs on it. Top box is X the bottom is a closed lock. The file size is 100Gb and is unreadable.
My question what is it and how do i get rid of it?

Distro Linux Mint 20.1
Motherboard) ASUS P7P55D PRO ,BiOS Version0209,CPU i5-750,
RAM 16GB DDR 1333MHz
 


Hmm...

Try running 'sudo nemo' from the terminal, navigating to the directory, opening the folder(s) and removing the content within. You should have a lost+found directory, but it should be empty unless you've deleted stuff. I'm pretty sure...
 
What KGIII said above.

I have comeacross more than a few of these....

Now, I simply leave them alone. No harm, no foul, approach.
 
LOL Thank you. The lost+found is gone. Looking at the drive with
(disks) (manage drive and media) it shows "2.0 TB free" But looking at the drives properties it shows "100Gb used" Now im just curious.
 
Curiousity can be good....Is good !

or....it can have you reaching for Timeshift or the dreaded reinstall....(worst case scenario)
 
Curiousity can be good....Is good !
i think it will be ok. This drive will be for video,mp3,games,photos...and ill have the other 2tb drive for the os and stuff.
or....it can have you reaching for Timeshift or the dreaded reinstall....(worst case scenario)
Timeshift is our friend! i also do backups and have two cloned hdd for this pc.
 
Could it be calculating the bit difference between 1024 and 1000?
 
The lost+found is gone.
It will be back when you reboot. The root of all EXT4 volumes will have this folder, so you have it with Linux Mint too. You can delete the contents (if any) but you should leave the folder in place. Other filesystems (UFS, ZFS, BTRFS) also use it. If it bothers you that much, switch to an exFAT filesystem for your storage drive, but Linux Mint will not install on exFAT.

Here is more info about lost+found.
 
Last edited:
Did S.M.A.R.T. test and its ok.
If it bothers you that much, switch to an exFAT
At this point it dont bother me at all. :) if i need that 100Gb ill add more drives. :rolleyes:*Now i know how simple it is*:rolleyes:
 
Looking at the drive with
(disks) (manage drive and media) it shows "2.0 TB free" But looking at the drives properties it shows "100Gb used"
I am not seeing your (disks) (manage drive and media......I open disks (from menu)....and I get a window showing the 'disks' that I have on/in my pc. I do not find the word 'manage' anywhere.

Leaving that to one side for a moment.....I found this....

....which explains that on your 2TB hdd, just 1.819 TB of it is usable/real capacity......approx.

or in seriously accurate figures....
1668381534239.png
 
When you buy say a 1TB SSD...it's never 1TB because you loose space formatting and/or installing the Distro...been that way for ever.
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If I want to format a Drive (not the Drive the Distro's on) I always use the Mint Disk Manager...very easy.
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I open disks (from menu)...I do not find the word 'manage' anywhere.
in the menu when my cursor is over the disks icon in the lower right corner of the menu it says "Disks Manage Drives and Media"
 
You must have a different desktop environment to me (DE)...
I have Cinnamon....you are probably using Mate or xfce ?
 
in the menu when my cursor is over the disks icon in the lower right corner of the menu it says "Disks Manage Drives and Media"

That is correct...did you click on it ? When you do...the Disk Manager will appear.
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The other way is to type in the search box..."Disks" then hit "Enter" and up it comes.
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The Mint Disk Manager can do a lot of things but if you're not familiar with it...you can do some damage and for some Timeshift can't fix...so if you want to do something always ask...just to be on the safe side.
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