usb hard disk

greengrocer · 05-15-2007, 06:12 AM

Hi people,

I have a 500Gb USB hard disk which is brand new and unformatted.

I am trying to learn how to format it.

I can use

Code:

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

and from there set up a partition and then I can press 'w' to write the information.

I then quit fdisk and use the following:

Code:

mkfs.ext3 -j dev/sda -L parition_name

But I get an error "Could not stat dev/sda --- No such file or directory"

I can try

Code:

mkfs.ext3 -j dev/sda1 -L parition_name

But I also get an error "Could not stat dev/sda --- No such file or directory"

any ideas folks?

Kind regards,
Greenie

syg00 · 05-15-2007, 06:30 AM

Missing the leading slash - try

Code:

mkfs.ext3 -j /dev/sda1 -L parition_name

saikee · 05-15-2007, 06:41 AM

I use

Code:

mke2fs -j /dev/sda1

kees-jan · 05-15-2007, 06:47 AM

Well then, type

Code:

ls -l /dev/sda*

Groetjes,

Kees-Jan

greengrocer · 05-15-2007, 07:15 AM

Hey thanks guys,

One more question.

I managed to format the drive, but I had created 2 partitions using fdisk and I was able to view them with the 'p' command in the fdisk utility.

Following formatting with mkfs, I think I can only see 1 partition.

I actually wanted to create one ext3 partition on partition 1, which I did.

But how can I format NTFS on the second partition?

Interestingly, even after unmounting /dev/sda2 (sda2 is the drive as it turns out), I can no longer use "fdisk /dev/sda2"

Regards,
Greenie

syg00 · 05-15-2007, 07:21 AM

"man mkntfs"
fdisk works with devices, not partitions - lose the digit.