Formatting an NTFS partition under FC4?
 

Hey all. I need to format the secondary hard drive on my server which is running FC4. only problem is the only partition on that drive is NTFS, is it possible to format it? And if so is it a wise idea? Any help much appreciated. Thanks.

Simplest would be to delete the partition(s) on the drive and then recreate it as a Linux partition, and use mkfs to create a Linux file system on the partition.

The parted tool is a nice way to do the first step, although other tools are available.

Note that any data on the NTFS drive will, of course, be lost.

There seems (except potential data lose) nothing unwise is this.

Will you need any help setting up /etc/fstab to access the secondary drive?

No thanks i can handle the ftsab myself, but would you be able to tell me the commands required to delete the partition and then format the drive in say ext3? thankyou for your initial reply

Note that Ive not actually done this, but I'd suggest, since you're on FC4, check to see if you have QTParted installed. (If you do, it should be in your "System Tools" menu.) QTParted is a "clone" of "Partition Magic" which wasn't available (or I didn't find) when I was setting up my Linux systems.

If it isn't installed, do a "yum install qtparted" to install it.

Then start it, point it at your /dev/hdb and follow the menus to delete the partition, recreate it as an ext3 partition, and format it.

or if you like you can do it with cfdisk, just delete the partition and make a new one, it's very straightforward and will show you a list of partition types, select linux (type 83) and then you can format it with the tool of your choice, since you want ext3, mkfs.ext3 or mke2fs -j would be the logical choice. you could also use mkreiserfs (mkfs.reiserfs) or mkfs.xfs for reiserfs or xfs, respectively.

a little less easy on the user than qtparted, but it is easier on the system resources and is more educational.