Moving / Copying files to drives

Hi
Just installed Zorin lite to an old laptop for a friend and she has returned to ask me how she copies a file to a USB Pen Drive
Having laughed and told her it is easy, (I assumed you just use the file manager), I made a visit and had to eat humble pie because I failed to find a way of browsing to the pen drive
I did a search for help on this and found some basic to-do files but I am still no wiser

So please could anyone point me in the right direction for a support / tutorial file, or perhaps explain the way to browse to the drives and manage files on Zorin Lite OS?
Any help would be most appreciated
Regards TW

Hi, Hopefully this thread may help:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/402236/ ... y-pendrive

Hi,
Thank you for your response, unfortunately the link is concerning an error with the pen drive
My query is how to browse to drives and copy files in Zorin
There is no logical or intuitive method for simply browsing to a file and copying or moving it to a drive
I am more experienced with Windows where you can view drives by using a file manager or "file explorer" or even browsing to a folder / directory tree in a simple file viewer
I would have assumed you could do this from the file manager in Zorin but there is only the folder view
I guess I am looking for the name of the application that I should add to the system so that this is possible
Thank you for your help though

Just for clarity is this Zorin 9 or 12 Lite?

It's Zorin 9 Lite, but it may be a few months old now
The laptop is an old XP Acer but it seems to run like clockwork with Zorin 9 lite on it
She only needs a machine for emails and internet browsing and a few spreadsheets / documents
I thought this would fit the bill perfectly and be so much more reliable that any Windows OS
The only problem is that I cannot see how to view the drives, for example copy a file from the documents folder to the Optical or from the documents to the USB Pen Drive
As I said, easy peasy in Windows because the file explorer shows you the file structure down to the drives
The file manager in Zorin does not
It only shows folders and ignores the drives
Should I try Zorin 12?
Thanks for your help, very much appreciated
Regards
TW

This might help - ironically the last post on this thread suggests PCmanFM - which is what Zorin Lite/Lubuntu uses! Is she set up as an administrator or standard user? My only other suggestion is to install Midnight Commander from software sources - use Synaptic Package Manager to check. My concern about upgrading is that she may lose any data at this point. Alternatively, to backup data, boot with one bootable USB if no optical drive and save stuff from home folder to another USB.

Is this just a 'visibility' issue perhaps, that you just cant see the drives? Do you have a left side 'pane' with Home Desktop Trash Bookmarks etc or just one main window showing your folders?

Pressing the F9 key should bring up the side pane in PCmanFM file manager allowing you to see your Drives in the left hand side pane.
Alternatively typing /media/username ( /media/sally for example) in the location bar and pressing enter should work also.



You can see that I have Home, Desktop, Trash and 16GBUSB (partially hidden) which is my USB drive down the left hand side pane.
The Screen shot shows the location in the menu for this setting. Just below my mouse pointer, make sure "Places" is selected as in this example as "Directory Tree" will just be confusing most likely.
Strangely when I installed this it was already configured as in the screen shot so I am guessing maybe this is on a laptop and she may have pressed F9 or Fn + F9 ( reduce screen brightness on mine) for some other action when the file manager was open leading to this scenario!

Hi
The file manager is set up as you indicate it should be, I think it is just the fact that the drives are not available to browse
Please see the pics I have uploaded
I would have expected file manager to allow the drives to be seen so that you could copy to / from or even format etc.
Thanks again for your help
Regards
TW

Just had a little play with formatting and partitioning, I see your 34GB shows up in the 'Disks' utility but not the file manager and it has Untitled Untitled under it leading me to ask if it is formatted/partitioned.

This picture shows my drive inserted but no formatting/partitioning, you can see the drive in Disks but not FM.


Now I have formatted it in 'fat' and it shows up right away in FM as 8 GB Volume (I have not removed the drive and reinserted )


I am using Linux Mint with Mate Desktop doing this and the default FM, Caja, behaves the same way before/after formatting.
Caja does show the 'File System' whilst PCmanFM does not unless I go to 'Directory Tree' view.

So is the drive formatted/partitioned? If so have you tried different drives and/or the same drive in another machine?

Hi
I think you have found the answer
I tried another 500MB USB drive and as soon as it is plugged in it appears in file manager
I reformatted the 34GB drive and it still did not show so I formatted it in the Zorin OS (Zorin OS11 Lite by the way) and it still does not show
Seems like Zorin has a maximum USB Drive size

At least I know 16GB is possible as you show that in your OS
What version OS are you using?

Seems peculiar to me that the HDD and Optical Drive do not appear in file manager
Most likely that is just me being used to Windows OS
Thank you for your help, very much appreciated
Regards
TW

Just an after thought that I wonder if this USB drive size limit may be a bug in Zorin 11?
Thinking about it it seems 32GB is not large nowadays
I wonder if I should upgrade to the Zorin12 Lite OS

How is the USB formatted? I have a 32 Gb memory stick with MultiSystem that was formatted to FAT32 with no problem (Zorin Ultimate - since version 9).

I formatted FAT

That is probably why then! FAT32 is what it should be:

I believe FAT means FAT32
The choice on Zorin 11 Lite is either NTFS or FAT if the drive needs to compatible with most systems
It would also not explain the difference between the 500MB drive working and the 32GB not when both formatted under FAT

Perhaps it's just the Lite versions that have the size limit

I intend to give Zorin 12 a go when I get time and see if that makes a difference
I will report back here
Regards
TW

Best thing you could do is use GParted in live version of Zorin Core and format the USB to FAT32:

technoweary wrote:I believe FAT means FAT32
The choice on Zorin 11 Lite is either NTFS or FAT if the drive needs to compatible with most systems
It would also not explain the difference between the 500MB drive working and the 32GB not when both formatted under FAT

Perhaps it's just the Lite versions that have the size limit

I intend to give Zorin 12 a go when I get time and see if that makes a difference
I will report back here
Regards
TW

Nope!:



Windows 7 only gives you the option of FAT and not FAT32 - that's why you are better off using GNU/Linux to format correctly.

(edit) for some reason I didn't see the replies above on the second page here when I made my answer below but I will leave the reply as I posted it!

I am using Linux Mint Mate 18.1 (16.04) 64 bit but I don't think that should change much for our purpose here. Not sure if a 32 bit machine and or OS would make any difference to "Seeing" a drive of larger capacity such your 34GB? Someone else may like to clarify if this is so!

This is a different computer than the other screen shots above, it has a DVD, Bluray, 2 x SSD's and 2 x HDD, yep six drives permanently installed and 3 USB drives plugged in here.

The picture shows my file manger (Caja) in the background with the 'Disks' utility in foreground, I have 'clicked' on the Bluray (Patriots Day) so its content show on the right hand side, but the DVD drive is not present in the FM because it has no disk inserted, yet clearly visible in 'Disks' as CD/DVD Drive, the sixth item down from top.

The first item in Disks is 128 GB Disk Samsung SSD 850 PRO 128GB, that is what my system is running from yet it doesn't show in the FM accept as 'File System' third item down in the left pane. In Windows it would be the "C" Drive! To see your 'system' or 'C' drive with PCmanFM you would need to go to "Directory Tree" in the view settings.
Another thing to note is a Windows PC (File Manager = Explorer?) will always show your drives, such as my DVD drive, even without a disk in it (D, E, F, Drive??) whereas Linux does not until it is 'mounted'.

You can see in my FM "Tools" and "Multisystem" they are 2 partitions on the 62 GB (USB) Drive shown in the Disks utility and I have clicked on it there. So it shows in FM as 2 drives. Also note that my system can 'see' drives larger than your 34GB so I am not sure if something with your drive or limitation of your PC or OS. I would try deleting the partitions and/or reformatting your 34GB again, even in another machine if it doesn't work, maybe in a Windows machine you have access to such.
Can you 'See' your 34GB in another machine and or read/write to the disk?



Sorry I got a little long winded here but just wanted to show some differences and examples for clarity as I know I struggled when I first started using Linux a few short years ago, hope this helps.

Hi Guys
Thaks for your help - here's the scenario

The 32GB USB drive was originally formatted FAT32 in Windows 10, (this is my drive that I was testing on my friends laptop that I installed Zorin 11 Lite)
When the subject of the format was raised I re-formatted it on the actual laptop using Zorin 11 lite
The ONLY options, (for general compatibility), on Zorin 11 Lite that I could find was FAT or NTFS
I chose FAT, (believing this would be FAT32)

Following the latest posts I have just stuck the 32GB USB drive formatted as FAT on Zorin 11 Lite into my Windows 10 Desktop and it says it's FAT32

My position would be that even if there was some anomoly with the format file structure surely the machine that formats the drive should be able to read it?

The 500MB USB drive, formatted FAT by Zorin 11 Lite works in Zorin and Windows 10
The 32GB drive, formatted by Zorin 11 Lite only works in Windows 10
I am looking around for some other sized USB drives to try but I think the next step is to try Zorin 12 when I get time to re-install
Thanks for your help, much appreciated
Regards
TW

Update
I searched around for other drives and found a 1GB and another 32GB
Also just borrowed a neighbours 1G USB
It's a confirmation of the scenario that the 32GB is not seen and the two 1GB drives work
I also tried copying a few files the the original 32GB drive to see if the Zorin format worked in Windows and it was OK
No files visible in Zorin though
Have to return neighbors drive and go to work now!
Think I have gone as far as possible on this road, I will try Zorin 12 this weekend and report back if it cures the problem
Thanks again
Regards
TW

Interesting article/thread here on Windows 10 and FAT:

https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardw ... 6-lba.html

My screensots of Zorin 9 Lite clearly show that FAT32 is an option and not just FAT.

Interesting! Is there some other form of fat also, maybe xfat or something like that as I once had similar issue with a neighbors Windows XP machine and USB drives from my Zorin 11 Ultimate machine?
Also wondering if maybe just some compatibility with the actual drives themselves as I have experienced this sort of behavior with cheap unbranded/generic USB sticks, I stopped buying those in favor of known brands.

If you could try some other brands/types/sizes etc and test would be interesting but at this stage likely you just want to make the original problem go away as this sort of thing in this day and age...

Just a thought, if your going to try Zorin 12 and there isn't any data on your 32GB, try making a Zorin 12 install stick on that and see what happens, just keep fire extinguisher handy

Swarfendor437 wrote:
My screensots of Zorin 9 Lite clearly show that FAT32 is an option and not just FAT.

This is where the confusion is coming in
Zorin 11 Lite does not give that option, just FAT or NTFS for compatible format

I just dug out my old HP laptop that I put Zorin 9 Lite on years ago and it shows the USB 32GB no problem
(I had completely forgotten that this old machine was still lurking in the bottom of the wardrobe)

I'm thinking that I am so wrong suggesting a bug in Zorin 11 Lite for this.
More likely is that the Acer laptop architecture may be from a time that 32GB Pen Drives did not exist, (It's an Acer 4101 wlmi from the days of XP)
I cannot remember what size drives were around in those days
I will try Zorin 9 on this over the weekend and see if that works
If not she will have to use smaller USB Drives

Apologies to all for wasting so much time but many thanks because I really do appreciate all the help
Regards
TW

ps I will report back on the outcome just for your information

Sorry, thought the rig was running Zorin 9 Lite which is supported until 2019

Hi Guys
Turns out it was the Old Windows XP laptop, I guess Zorin does not have the USB drivers that go back to the days of Windows XP
Got around it by installing the "Modified 2015" copy of Windows XP that has all the updates and service packs
Apart from the USB drivers issue and the ATi VGA being a bit unreliable Zorin 9 Lite ran very well on the old laptop and it is a shame she will be stuck in Windows XP
Thank you for all your help
Again I apologise for taking up time on this
Regards
TW

I would strongly advise she should not be using XP for security reasons and potentially being a source for a BOT without her knowledge. Did you try any other distribution? Does she not have an optical drive for a DVD? Or do you have an external Optical Drive to install a different distro? If it was merely lack of USB support:

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/index.html

Swarfendor437 wrote:I would strongly advise she should not be using XP for security reasons and potentially being a source for a BOT without her knowledge. Did you try any other distribution? Does she not have an optical drive for a DVD? Or do you have an external Optical Drive to install a different distro? If it was merely lack of USB support:

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/index.html

I totally agree about XP, (or any Windows OS come to that)
It became a matter of time to get the laptop back to her that did not enable me to do more research with other versions
Plus the fact I basically know Zorin having used it on my old HP laptop
I have put Kaspersky on the laptop, and this will offer excellent security and also enables me to confirm there was no surprises included in the "Free Download" version of XP, (I am being a bit unfair actually because the XP share is released by a guy with a trusted reputation)
She should be OK because other than Microsoft Word she only does a bit of browsing and home shopping
As it happens were it not for Autocad and Intuit I would NEVER be using Microsoft OS myself
Regards
TW