Element 14 DIT PI Desktop User Manual page 9

b) Connect the mSATA SSD to an external computer via a USB connection without
having to open up the Pi Desktop case.
If the mSATA SSD that you have connected is pre-formatted with a partition using a
FAT32 file system (FAT32 FS), then this FS is typically accessible by all known
modern operating systems (OS), and easily accessible. If the mSATA SSD uses a
typical Linux FS (such as one with extension 2, 3 or 4) this is trickier to access by all
OSs.
Note: If you're connecting the mSATA SSD add-on board to a computer other than
the Raspberry Pi inside the Pi Desktop, then you will need the appropriate cable,
and you will also have to power the add-on board/Pi Desktop and press the Power-
On switch. This will also power on the Raspberry Pi if it is still connected.
1) Imaging and Setting Up Partitions
An easy to use utility for managing the partitions on the drive is 'gparted' from the
Raspbian (OS) (for example if you booted from the SD Card):
http://gparted.org/
This is a graphical user interface (GUI) tool that can be used to manage the
partitions on your drives, connected via USB or otherwise. It can be installed via
the apt package manager from the command line interface (CLI):
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install gparted
Then you can either run it from the menu of your Raspbian OS, or from the CLI:
$ sudo gparted
From here you can (re)partition your mSATA SSD if it's running a supported file
system. If you are using the CLI, then you will want to issue the following
command:
$ sudo fdisk /dev/<identifier>
Where <identifier> is the mount point for the mSATA SSD.
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