Formating an external NTFS Drive?

vezril · 08-22-2006, 06:22 PM

I was wondering if it was possible to format an external usb hdd which is in ntfs under linux (Fedora Core 5 to be precise)

i've looked around the forum to see, from what i saw it is possible, but i want to format with a FAT32 filesystem.

I have ntfs support, if that helps any

if you need more info, just ask

Thank you

~Vezril~

macemoneta · 08-22-2006, 06:37 PM

Your question is a little confusing and the title is misleading.

If you want to format FAT32, then just:

mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdXY

See the 'man mkdosfs' for additional details. If you don't have mkdosfs installed, it's part of the dosfstools package:

yum -y install dosfstools

vezril · 08-22-2006, 07:00 PM

Thanks for the help, sorry about the question being confusing, i'm just waking up =/

i tryed what you told me, but its giving me this error

Code:

 [root@localhost ~]# mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1
mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)

mkdosfs: /dev/sda2 contains a mounted file system.

its probably referring to the ntfs filesystem

so this is what i want to do (to clear things up)

kill all data on that external usb drive, which is currently under a ntfs filesystem
then format that drive under FAT32

macemoneta · 08-22-2006, 07:09 PM

The messages says that the filesystem is mounted - in other words, it's in use. The command thinks that it's a silly thing to try to format a drive when the files are being used, and it's correct.

You need to unmount the filesystem first:

umount /dev/sda1

or umount the mountpoint. For example, if /dev/sda1 is mounted on /media/ntfsdrive:

umount /media/ntfsdrive

If you get a message that the device is busy, it means that some file is open on the filesystem. Close any programs that are accessing files on the drive. If you have a terminal windows open and have 'cd' to a directory on the drive, it will also report busy.

vezril · 08-22-2006, 07:42 PM

alright got it working

Thanks alot for the help and sorry to have bothered you with trivial maters like formating

~Vezril~

macemoneta · 08-22-2006, 07:57 PM

I wasn't "bothered", or I wouldn't have responded. Sorry if I came across otherwise.

I was trying to point out that the more accurately you represent the problem you are having, the more likely you are to get someone that can help you. Many people may know how to format a FAT32 partition, but because of the licensing issues around formatting NTFS and spotty distribution support, some folks may avoid even looking at a question titled "Formating an external NTFS Drive" (the only thing they see when scanning new posts).