I initially tried to format the DS213 v1.22 built-in 8MB storage on my linux machine but the files ended up unreadable after saving a few screenshots and CSV. The first method I tried was from the official forum. http://www.minidso.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3342&highlight=format,

sudo dd of=/dev/sda if=/dev/zero status=progress
sudo mkfs.fat -F 12 /dev/sda
mkdir -p /tmp/p
sudo mount /dev/sda /tmp/p -t msdos -o "fat=12"

This essentially formats it to FAT12 but the files are unreadable or corrup once mounted.

sudo mkfs.fat -F 12 /dev/sda
mkfs.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
sudo file -s /dev/sda
/dev/sda: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x3c+2, OEM-ID "mkfs.fat", Bytes/sector 4096, sectors/cluster 4, root entries 512, sectors 2048 (volumes <=32 MB), Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 1, sectors/track 16, heads 1, serial number 0x6abdcee4, unlabeled, FAT (12 bit)

Searching for a similar issue in the forums suggested to use Win 7 which I did try and that somehow worked. I used Win 7 to format the DS213 storage to FAT(Default) and selecting “Quick Format” http://www.minidso.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2079&page=1#pid5441

Checking back on linux to see how the storage was formatted showed that the sectors per cluster was set to one (1).

sudo file -s /dev/sda
/dev/sdb: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x3c+2, OEM-ID "MSDOS5.0", Bytes/sector 4096, root entries 512, sectors 2048 (volumes <=32 MB), Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 1, sectors/track 1, heads 1, reserved 0x1, serial number 0x8e66a5cc, unlabeled, FAT (12 bit)

So to make formating of DS213 work in linux and make the files readable was to override mkfs.fat sector per cluster option to one.

sudo mkfs.fat -F 12 -s1 /dev/sda
mkfs.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
sudo file -s /dev/sda
/dev/sda: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x3c+2, OEM-ID "mkfs.fat", Bytes/sector 4096, root entries 512, sectors 2048 (volumes <=32 MB), Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 1, sectors/track 16, heads 1, serial number 0x998edf48, unlabeled, FAT (12 bit)

Sample screenshots made within DS213