Formatting (FDISK) Help

carlosinfl · 03-27-2007, 07:47 PM

Ok - I am formatting an extra drive I threw in my box and I must use FDISK so if anyone can please help me, I would greatly appreciate it!

As you can see the disk is now visible on the system.

Code:

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

I ran "fdisk /dev/sdb" command and created what I can only assume is an Ext3 partition since I saw only code "83". I also selected to make it a primary partition but I am not sure if that was the correct thing to do.

Code:

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001   83  Linux

My question now is so far have I done everything correct? If not, please explain what I did wrong and how to resolve it.

My 2nd question is now must I set a mount point to it? Do I just go to /etc/fstab and create a new entry to map /dev/sdb1 to /data?

Thanks for all your support & info!

Quakeboy02 · 03-27-2007, 07:52 PM

Now that you have a partition, you need to make a filesystem on it. "fdisk" doesn't do that for you. You probably want to just run "mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1". After that, "mkdir /data". "chmod 777 /data" or whatever permissions you want. "mount /dev/sdb1 /data". And, it's mounted. For your fstab you can have this, at least that's what mine reads.

/dev/sdb1 /data auto defaults 0 0

rguym · 03-27-2007, 10:47 PM

When you used fdisk to set primary and file system, did you select write to disk?
Since your linux system recognizes /dev/sdb ,yet "doesn't contain a valid partion table", perhaps you should use qparted or parted or a similar disk partioner to format this drive to your preferred file system (ext2, ext3, reisfers..)
hope this helped

Quakeboy02 · 03-27-2007, 10:52 PM

Quote:

When you used fdisk to set primary and file system, did you select write to disk?
Since your linux system recognizes /dev/sdb ,yet "doesn't contain a valid partion table"

I missed that.

You will have to actually write the partition to the drive (the "w" command in fdisk) before you can put a filesystem on it, etc.

michaelk · 03-28-2007, 07:49 AM

Quakeboy02, IMO your first post was correct, I believe the OPs first code block just indicated the drive was recognized, the second code block was after the drive was partitioned which now shows a valid partition table.

Carwill, the linux partition ID i.e. 83 does not indicated filesystem type. You can format it with any filesystem i.e. ext2/3, reiserfs, jfs, xfs etc.

carlosinfl · 03-28-2007, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

Quakeboy02, IMO your first post was correct, I believe the OPs first code block just indicated the drive was recognized, the second code block was after the drive was partitioned which now shows a valid partition table.

Carwill, the linux partition ID i.e. 83 does not indicated filesystem type. You can format it with any filesystem i.e. ext2/3, reiserfs, jfs, xfs etc.

Ah - thanks - so now I just need to mk2fs -j to format as ext3, right? This is not done in the FDISK utility, right?

Quakeboy02 · 03-28-2007, 01:40 PM

The fdisk utility does not make filesystems. I don't know anything about mk2fs. I use "mkfs.ext3", like I posted above.

carlosinfl · 03-28-2007, 01:51 PM

OK - thanks. I have it formated and partitioned now. However I was told that since these two mount points are removable USB drives, I should not have entries in /etc/fstab. Someone said I should remove the fstab entries & let hal/dbus/automounter run the show.

Anyone know what is the correct way to do this? I want to be able to just plug and play these two formated ext3 USB drives into any Linux system w/o massive headaches.

Quakeboy02 · 03-28-2007, 02:17 PM

"Someone said I should remove the fstab entries & let hal/dbus/automounter run the show."

Give it a try. If you haven't mounted it after creating a filesystem, unplug it, wait a couple seconds, then plug it back in. If you have a mount point, then it worked.

NOTE: It's a good idea to give all the information you have about your stuff in the first post, rather than leaking it out in dribs and drabs. In this case, knowing it's USB is not a big deal. For the next one, it might be.