Hello, can anyone show me how to repartition and format my external drives. To date, I have only done this when reinstalling the OS.

I have two external usb drives, sdb and sdc. sdb is using ext3 and the other unpartitioned. I want to repartition the latter with ext3. Could someone show me how to do this?

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siawash@linux-s53f:~> sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x294599de

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1402 11261533+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 1403 15918 116592640 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 15919 16403 3895762+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 * 16404 30401 112438935 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b66d6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 19457 156288321 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000bbebb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 2 38913 312560640 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 2 38913 312560608+ 83 Linux
siawash@linux-s53f:~>
siawash@linux-s53f:~>
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If you have a gui available, GParted is a good tool and you can just graphically do it.

Or you can use cfdisk.

Thanks for the reply. I am currently using OpenSUSE. It cannot find gparted in it's repositories nor is it installed.

I managed to get cfdisk up but it does not show the external drives at all. Only showing sda. I am using sudo

sudo /sbin/cfdisk

I am trying to learn so I prefer non graphic utilities.

Try sudo /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdc.

After creating an ext3 partition using fdisk you will need to format it with ext3 using the command mkfs.ext3

Thanks pljvaldez. cfdisk repartitioned my drive with type 83 as general Linux fs. There was no option to for ext3 specifically.

catkin, that command mkfs.ext3 is not showing which drive we are referring to. Is it :

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc ???

Thanks

Not quite correct but on the right lines. mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1 (or whatever the name of the new partition was as shown by cfdisk). /dev/sdc is the whole disk, /dev/sdc<n> are the partitions on the disk, so you used cfdisk /dev/sdc because you wanted to work with that whole disk but you want to create the file system in one of its partitions.

OK, i managed to format the sdc using mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc.

Now when I check the partitions with

sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

I get

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

You would not normally format a whole drive---just a partition. I think maybe you wanted:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1

Do yourself a favor and download PartedMagic:

http://partedmagic.com/

It's a linux livecd that specializes in gparted and other useful utilities. It greatly simplifies partitioning operations and is a useful cd to have in your kit.

Hi kilgoretrout, I will try partedmagic at the very last resort but I am trying to learn this stuff as well.


I tried mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1 and get

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mke2fs 1.41.1 (01-Sep-2008)
Could not stat /dev/sdc1 --- No such file or directory

The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
siawash@linux-s53f:~>

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But when I do the following it is recognized.:

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siawash@linux-s53f:~> sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x294599de

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1402 11261533+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 1403 15918 116592640 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 15919 16403 3895762+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 * 16404 30401 112438935 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b66d6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 19457 156288321 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 38913 312568641 83 Linux

If you want to get GParted, here's a good opensuse howto.

Otherwise, do like you did before with sudo /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdc and then mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1 (not sure if mkfs has to be run from sudo also).

Nope, sorry. I am still getting the same errors as root.

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linux-s53f:/home/siawash # sudo /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdc

linux-s53f:/home/siawash # /sbin/mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1
mke2fs 1.41.1 (01-Sep-2008)
Could not stat /dev/sdc1 --- No such file or directory

The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?

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Does it matter if I make the partition as primary and not logical?

Because i am using only one large primary partition.

Strange. Your earlier posting showedso /dev/sdc1 existed then.

You do need sudo to run mkfs.ext3.

It does not matter whether the partition is primary or logical.

Try and if that doesn't work post the output from Output is easier to read if you put it in CODE tags, that's the word CODE enclosed in [ and ].

Best

Charles

Hi, here is the output