Formatting a USB drive

While DogLog supports logging to the roboRIO’s internal storage, using a USB drive is the preferred method for storing logs.

Some benefits of using a USB drive for logging include:

• Having an easy way to access logs when the robot is turned off
• Ensuring you always have enough storage for logs, without worrying about old ones being overwritten to make
• A safer way to store logs than on the roboRIO’s storage
  • On the roboRIO 1, using a USB drive for logs avoids bricking the internal flash storage
    • Read more about this failure mode here
  • On the roboRIO 2, the microSD card frequently comes loose during hard collisions, causing log writes to fail without a USB

This guide will walk you through the steps of formatting a USB drive to get it ready for use with DogLog on a robot.

Steps

Steps for Windows

Small drives (less than 32GB)

1. Plug the USB drive into your computer

2. Open a File Explorer window and look for your USB drive in the sidebar

   

3. Right click the USB drive and click the “Format…” option

   

4. In the window that opens, enter a name for the USB drive, and under the “File system” section, select “FAT32 (Default)” if it isn’t already selected

   

5. In the dialog that opens, click “OK” to confirm formatting the USB drive

   

6. After formatting, click “OK” in the dialog that opens

   

7. Right click the USB drive and click the “Eject” option, then remove the drive from your computer

   

8. Insert the USB drive into one of the roboRIO’s USB ports

   The next time your robot code starts up, logs will automatically be saved to the USB drive.

Large drives (more than 32GB)

Due to a limitation in the built-in Windows formatter, USB drives larger than 32GB can’t be formatted as FAT32, which is the only format supported by the roboRIO. As a workaround, this guide uses Rufus, a free and open-source app for formatting USB drives.

1. Plug the USB drive into your computer

2. Download and install Rufus

   Tip

   If you don’t have administrator access to install Rufus, you can download the portable version of Rufus, which can be run without needing to be installed.

3. Open Rufus, and under the “Device” section, select the USB drive you want to use

4. Under the “Boot selection” section, select “Non bootable”

   

5. Under the “Volume label” section, enter a name for the USB drive

6. Under the “File system” section, select “Large FAT32 (Default)” if it isn’t already selected

7. Click “START”

   

8. In the dialog that opens, click “OK” to confirm formatting the USB drive

   

9. After formatting, click “CLOSE” in Rufus

   

10. Open a File Explorer window, and look for your USB drive in the sidebar

    

11. Right click the USB drive and click the “Eject” option, then remove the drive from your computer

    

12. Insert the USB drive into one of the roboRIO’s USB ports

    The next time your robot code starts up, logs will automatically be saved to the USB drive.

Steps for macOS

1. Plug the USB drive into your computer

2. Open a Finder window and look for your USB drive in the sidebar, under “Locations”

   

3. Right click the USB drive and click the “Erase” option

   

4. In the dialog that opens, enter a name for the USB drive, and under the “Format” section, select “MS-DOS (FAT)”

   

5. Click “Erase” and wait for the drive to be formatted

6. Eject the drive from your computer, then remove it from your computer

   

7. Insert the USB drive into one of the roboRIO’s USB ports

   The next time your robot code starts up, logs will automatically be saved to the USB drive.