How do you format a partition fat32 (vfat)

royeo · 09-02-2006, 07:34 PM

I have FC-5 and use KDE.

I bought Partition Magic just so I could format a partition fat32. It works, both Linux and Windows can read and write to it (for a while). But over time I have actually lost a lot of files and it finally came to pass that Linux couldn't even write to it. Can somebody tell me how to format it fat32 in Linux. I'm willing to not have Windows access.

Thanks,

royeo

tuxrules · 09-02-2006, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by royeo

I bought Partition Magic just so I could format a partition fat32. It works, both Linux and Windows can read and write to it (for a while). But over time I have actually lost a lot of files and it finally came to pass that Linux couldn't even write to it. Can somebody tell me how to format it fat32 in Linux. I'm willing to not have Windows access.

Thanks,

royeo

Hi,
Linux can absolutely make a fat32 partition. I've made fat32 partition numerous times. Here's a short rundown:

see

Code:

man mkdosfs

Code:

mkdosfs -c -F 32 -v /dev/<disk><partition>

change disk and partition according to your setup.

Interesting thing is that windows doesn't allow you to create more than 32 GB of fat32 partition (i.e. using windows partition tool...not something like partition magic) while Linux will do it for you.

Tux,

David the H. · 09-02-2006, 07:48 PM

In a terminal:

"mkdosfs -F32 /dev/hdb1"

..substituting your partition device, of course.
"man mkdosfs" for more options.

Edit: Aargh. Beaten to it.

routers · 09-06-2006, 09:07 AM

i use mkfs.vfat

/dev/hdc1 111G 93G 12G 89% /export/NFS

root@noc:/home/rou# /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hdc

Disk /dev/hdc: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 14589 117186111 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

... uh !! did i lost 9G?

David the H. · 09-06-2006, 10:58 AM

mkfs.vfat is an alias for "mkdosfs -F32". It's just another way to type it, providing consistency with the mkfs command. Similarly there's mkfs.msdos, which is just an alias for the default fat12/fat16 mkdosfs option.

Try typing "man mkfs.vfat" and see what it gets you.