Formatting an SSD Card

A pre-formatted SSD card is already supplied with your device. However, if you want to purchase additional SSD cards and use them with the device, they must be correctly formatted. The following procedures describe how to correctly format them.

Caution: formatting your drive will erase all existing data on it. Make sure you back up any important files before proceeding.

Formatting an external SSD using Windows File Explorer

To format an SSD using the Windows file explorer, you will need:

• Windows OS Laptop

• New Samsung SSD T7 / T5

• Connector cable (USB-C to USB)

Procedure

1. Open the File Explorer and navigate the external SSD on the left-hand side of the window.

   

2. Right-click the drive and select Format.

   

3. In the Format USB Drive window:

   1. Under File system, select exFAT.

   2. Under Volume data, enter “data”.

      Note: This is case sensitive

   

4. Click Start.

5. Click OK in the pop-up window.

   

Formatting an external SSD via Script on Linux

Note: NavVis recommends formatting the external SSD using the provided Linux script.

NavVis provides the format_ssd_to_exfat.sh script (for Ubuntu 18.4 and greater). Execute the script only once. It formats the SSD and performs the necessary reconfigurations of older systems that NavVis cannot do automatically.

The script:

• Displays the folder size on the SSD

• Displays a warning if the wrong device is used. It tries /dev/sda and /dev/sdb as they are standard selections for NavVis devices.

• Unmounts the SSD, creates the GUID partition table, and formats the SSD to exFAT

• Checks if the mount point is clean and if not, instructs you to delete all content

• Remounts the SSD and confirms

The script does not:

• Delete content without user confirmation.

• Run automatically.

• Run from the mapping UI.

Note: Make sure the SSD is mounted on the device.

Procedure

1. Close the mapping UI on the device.

2. From a terminal, run format_ssd_to_exfat.sh . If you are an advanced user, you can run nv_setup-data-disk /srv .

3. When successful, you see "Restart the device to make a first mapping". Restart the device.

Note: If the format_ssd_to_exfat.sh script does not work, use the manual procedure.

Formatting an external SSD on MS Windows

Procedure

1. Connect the SSD to an MS Windows PC with a USB cable.

   Note: MS Windows does not detect the SSD automatically as it cannot read the SSD ext4 file system.

2. From MS Windows, search for and select Create and format hard disk partitions.

   

3. From the Disk Management dialog:

   1. Select the SSD marked "Not initialized" and "Unallocated".

   2. Confirm the correct SSD size (usually 1TB). In the example graphic, it is "Disk 2" but can vary.

   3. Right-click the SSD and select Initialize Disk

   

4. From the Initialize Disk dialog, select the correct disk (Disk 2 in the example graphic),.

5. For the partition style, select GPT (GUID Partition Table) and then click OK.

   

6. After initialization, the SSD shows as "Online". Right-click in the unassigned space and select New Simple Volume.

7. From the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next.

   

8. In the Simple volume size in MB field, click the arrows to select the simple volume size. Use the full size of the SSD. The default values should be OK.

   

9. Assign a drive letter to the disk to access it in File Explorer:

   1. Select Assign the following drive letter.

   2. Click the arrow to select a drive letter.

   3. Click Next

   

10. Format the partition: Select Format this volume with the following settings:

    1. In File system, select "exFAT".

    2. In Allocation unit size, leave as "Default".

    3. In Volume label, enter "data".

    4. Select Perform a quick format.

    5. Click Next.

11. From the New Simple Volume Wizard, confirm the settings and then click Finish.

    

Formatting an external SSD to exFAT in Ubuntu

Requirements

• An SSD drive connected to your Ubuntu system.

• A working installation of Ubuntu.

• Administrative (sudo) privileges.

Procedure

1. Install the exFAT Utilities Package.

   Before proceeding with the formatting process, it is necessary to install the exFAT utilities package on your Ubuntu system. This package provides essential tools for working with the exFAT file system. Open the Terminal and enter the following command:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install exfat-utils exfat-fuse -y

   After executing the command, the system will download and install the required utilities.

2. Identify the SSD Drive.

   To format the correct SSD drive, you must first identify it. In the Terminal, run the following command to display a list of connected drives:

   sudo fdisk -l

   Examine the output and locate your SSD drive. Take note of its device identifier (e.g., /dev/sdb1).

3. Unmount the SSD Drive.

   Before formatting the SSD drive, you must unmount it to avoid potential data loss or corruption. Use the following command, replacing [SSD_IDENTIFIER] with the device identifier you noted earlier:

   sudo umount [SSD_IDENTIFIER]

4. Format the SSD Drive to exFAT.

   As the SSD drive is now unmounted, you can proceed to format it to exFAT. Execute the following command, substituting [LABEL] with a custom name for your SSD drive and [SSD_IDENTIFIER] with the device identifier:

   sudo mkfs.exfat -n data [SSD_IDENTIFIER]

   The formatting process will begin, and your SSD drive will be formatted to the exFAT file system.

5. Mount the Formatted SSD Drive.

   After formatting, create a mount point for the SSD drive by executing the following command, replacing [MOUNT_POINT] with a custom name:

   sudo mkdir /media/[MOUNT_POINT]

   Next, mount the newly formatted SSD drive to the mount point using this command, substituting [SSD_IDENTIFIER] with the device identifier and [MOUNT_POINT] with the custom name:

   sudo mount -t exfat [SSD_IDENTIFIER] /media/[MOUNT_POINT]

Using a new SSD formatted for exFAT from Windows

Note: Make sure the SSD label field is "data" to enable the device to locate the SSD.

Procedure

1. Connect the SSD to an MS Windows PC with a USB cable.

2. From MS Windows, search for and select Create and format hard disk partitions.

   

3. From the Disk Management dialog:

   1. Select the new SSD.

   2. Right-click the SSD and select Properties.

   3. From the Volumes tab, click Properties.

   4. From the Generals tab, change the label for the SSD to "data".

   5. Click OK.

   

Using a new SSD formatted for exFAT from Linux

The following section describes how to format the SSD drive for the exFAT file system in Linux.

Procedure

1. Type "disks" into the search field and then click the Disks icon.

   

2. Select the external 1TB SSD (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB).

   Note: Do not select the internal SSD with a 250 GB size

   

3. Click the gear icon and select Edit Filesystem… from the drop-down menu.

   

4. In the Label field, type "data".

5. Click Change.

   

Formatting an external SSD on a NavVis VLX

This procedure describes how to format an external SSD directly on a NavVis VLX. This process is only necessary for SSDs purchased from non-NavVis entities.

Note: this method should only be used if a computer is not available. Otherwise, use one the preferred methods above.

Scope

• T7 Samsung SSD (VLX 2 and VLX 3)

• T5 Samsung SSD (VLX 1)

Procedure

1. Connect the new SSD to a NavVis VLX and start the device

2. From the main landing page of the NavVis Mapping UI, exit the mapping software.

   1. Click the settings icon.

      

   2. Scroll down to Advanced settings and open the drop down menu.

   3. Click Exit.

      

3. Select the 9 grey dots in the bottom left corner of the Ubuntu OS and search for “disks”.

   

4. Open the Disks tool.

   

5. Select the external 1TB SSD (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB).

   Note: Do not select the internal SSD with a 250 GB size.

   

6. Click the gear icon and select Format Partition… from the drop-down menu.

   

   1. Set the Volume Name to “data”.

      Note: This is case sensitive

   2. Set the Type to Other.

   

7. Click Next.

8. In the Custom Format window, select exFAT as the format type.

   

9. Click Next then Format.

10. Reopen the NavVis Mapping software by clicking the blue trolley icon.