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Linux - Laptop and Netbook Having a problem installing or configuring Linux on your laptop? Need help running Linux on your netbook? This forum is for you. This forum is for any topics relating to Linux and either traditional laptops or netbooks (such as the Asus EEE PC, Everex CloudBook or MSI Wind).

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Old 08-10-2005, 06:03 PM   #1
vasanthd
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Registered: Aug 2005
Posts: 2

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Unhappy Help needed in partitioning/formatting an USB Harddrive


Hello all linuxers,
I am pretty new to linux and I need your help in formatting an USB laptop HD. Since this section deals with laptop stuff, I found it feasible to post it here. I have a 60GB laptop harddrive in an external USB case splitted into NTFS, Fat32, Fat32. All I need to do is remove all partitions and have just one single Fat32. The device got mounted automatically in my Fedora. I used "fdisk /dev/sda" to partition. But when I do all those add delete etc etc, and just after choosing the "w" (write table to disk and exit) option, I get the following messages/error:

Quote:
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
[prompt]
And upon reboot, I still see the old partition and the data intact. The reason why I use linux for partitioning is because windows does not recognize the multiple partitioned USB harddrive. Linux however mounts the Fat stuff and r/w is possible. So I want to make this a single Fat32 tp use in both windows and linux.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks.
Regards,
Vasanth

Last edited by vasanthd; 08-11-2005 at 02:06 AM.
 
Old 08-10-2005, 07:25 PM   #2
gravesb
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Registered: May 2005
Distribution: Suse 9.3, Gentoo
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There are two other linux format utilities. I don't have any of my manuals in front of me right now, but I think you want to use one of the alternatives. Tonight, I will try and find the appropriate command.
 
Old 08-11-2005, 01:55 AM   #3
vasanthd
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Registered: Aug 2005
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HD partition table info added

Hi gravesb and all,

I also want to know if this partition table info seems OK?? This is the partition which I want to remove and make it as single Fat32.
Quote:
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1913 7295 43238947+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1913 4462 20482843+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 4463 7295 22756041 b W95 FAT32

-------------------------------------------------------

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 7296 cylinders

Nr AF Hd Sec Cyl Hd Sec Cyl Start Size ID
1 80 1 1 0 254 63 1023 63 30716217 07
2 00 0 1 1023 254 63 1023 30716280 86477895 0f
3 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00
4 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00
5 00 1 1 1023 254 63 1023 63 40965687 0b
6 00 1 1 1023 254 63 1
Thanks,
Regards,
Vasanth
 
Old 08-11-2005, 09:31 AM   #4
manjunathk
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Registered: Jul 2005
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hi,

u just have to do mke2fs /dev/sda1 this will format the disk and create an ext2 filesystem on it. i think it is enough and can be used by just mounting as follows since u r using the fedora core.

1. create a mount point as /usb-disk
2. mount /dev/sda1 /usb-disk/

then cd to /usb-disk/ and do what ever u want. please let me know if u have any more doubts.
 
Old 08-11-2005, 11:25 AM   #5
gravesb
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Registered: May 2005
Distribution: Suse 9.3, Gentoo
Posts: 87

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The below is from the fdisk man page. Try cfdisk.

There are several *fdisk programs around. Each has its problems and
strengths. Try them in the order cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk. (Indeed,
cfdisk is a beautiful program that has strict requirements on the par‐
tition tables it accepts, and produces high quality partition tables.
Use it if you can. fdisk is a buggy program that does fuzzy things -
usually it happens to produce reasonable results. Its single advantage
is that it has some support for BSD disk labels and other non-DOS par‐
tition tables. Avoid it if you can. sfdisk is for hackers only - the
user interface is terrible, but it is more correct than fdisk and more
powerful than both fdisk and cfdisk. Moreover, it can be used nonin‐
teractively.)

These days there also is parted. The cfdisk interface is nicer, but
parted does much more: it not only resizes partitions, but also the
filesystems that live in them.
 
  


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