Linux Mint users have the Disks program to help handle storage. I installed Disks in Raspberry Pi OS. Here are the results.
Who wants Disks?
People using Linux Mint or an equivalent distribution of Linux will use Disks to check the SMART data for storage devices, create images of storage devices, and perhaps add or delete partitions.
Gparted is the next step up for partition management with an option to resize partitions but without the easy one click displays in Disks. Start with Disks to work out changes then optionally use Gparted to make some of the more complex changes.
What?
Disks is the disk management utility for GNOME and is a Linux package named gnome-disk-utility. The package is a megabyte download and I tested version 43.0.
The Disks install reports the following changes for packages Disks is dependent on. An inspection of the OS afterwards shows lots of tiny changes but nothing using significant disk space and there is no memory usage until you start the program.
The following additional packages will be installed:
cracklib-runtime libcrack2 libpwquality-common libpwquality1
Read more at https://apps.gnome.org/en-GB/DiskUtility/. Inspect the source code at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-disk-utility.
When?
Use Disks any time you have multiple disks or plug in storage like USB sticks, SD cards, or microSD cards. Lots of backup disks? Check their SMART data with Disks.
You end up with lots of microSD cards for test projects when developing on Raspberry Pi computers as a microSD card is the default boot device and you can afford to use one per project. Disks gives you a quick easy way to view their partition allocations, space usage, and create an image from the card or to write an image to a card.
I install Disks in every Linux as a quick way to check storage. The Raspberry Pi OS has an image creation program you use to copy the booted microSD card. For everything else, Disks is easier and you can use the same program on every one of your computers.
Where?
Disks is Gnome software. All the Gnome software is available in and runs on Debian Linux. Many distributions of Linux are based on Debian. Disks runs on all those distributions plus distributions based on Red Hat. You may have to compile Disks for other versions of Linux.
Why?
Speed. Ease. Disks is a quick easy way to do some common activities. A minute to install then a few minutes to browse the application options. You will save those minutes most times when you mess with storage devices.
Way?
If your Linux has a Software Manager or the Synaptic Package Manager, search them for Disks and install from there. Every distribution of Linux based on Debian can use the following command to install Disks. Other versions of Linux may require a different command.
sudo apt install gnome-disk-utility
Worth?
Installing Disks is worth the effort if you work with multiple storage devices and Disks is not already installed. If you have to compile Disks and have never compiled Linux applications, compiling Disks is unlikely to be worth the effort of learning how to compile.
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