How to format removable media?

[John]

J.B. Nicholson-Owens wrote:
> I can see how to format a floppy disk (use the "Applications->System 
> Tools->Floppy Formatter" program).  But how do you format other 
> removable media like Jaz and Zip disks without resorting to the command 
> line?
> 
> Shouldn't the formatting be consistent across media; how about 
> right-click on the drive and get a menu choice called "Format..." which 
> will prompt you for the appropriate information?
> 
> I'm guessing that this might be a GNOME or Nautilus issue, in which case 
> if someone could direct me to the proper place to ask this, I'd be happy 
> to post my question there.


A related matter is doing filesystem checks.

How does one
a) Discover that a filesystem check is approriate?
b) Perform the check.


I discovered my laptop drive is due for a filesystem check by reading 
the system messages, but "average users" won't even know they exist. 
Just ask OSX users where the system messages are!

Actually performing the ckeck is not as simple as just plugging it in 
and running e2fsck, what with the automounting and all.

Any GUI solution needs to cope with the certainty that on some machines 
there will be more than one logged-in user.