I have an old LaCie 2TB Thunderbolt2 device which had been used by someone else in a RAID configuration. The original 2.5"HDD was removed from the RAID, partitioned and reformatted as HFS and working well in the LaCie enclosure. I removed it and replaced the HDD with a 2.5" SSD which is working well.

I am trying to connect the removed HDD as an external drive to my Linux laptop for backups etc. I have been trying (with my limited knowledge of Linux) to partition it and reformat it to Ext4 but the format continually fails.

Terminal readout from relative portion of parted command:

donmac@donmac-Inspiron-linux:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for donmac:
Model: ST2000LM 003 HN-M201RAD (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 2000GB 2000GB primary
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Terminal readout from fdisk command:

donmac@donmac-Inspiron-linux:~$ fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command. w

fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Permission denied
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An internet page on formatting suggested using "blockdev".
Readout of suggested blockdev command:

donmac@donmac-Inspiron-linux:~$ sudo blockdev -v --setrw /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for donmac:
blockdev: cannot open /dev/sdb: No such file or directory
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Every attempt to open the device indicates that it cannot be opened. Can anyone assist me with a command or series of commands that will enable the disk to be erased, partitioned and formatted as ext4?

Thanks.

If this is a direct copy/pasted you forgot to use sudo...

Any function you can do with fdisk you can do with parted.

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This is a shot in the dark, but is the drive mounted? You cannot partition a mounted drive.

Also, please surround terminal output with "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button beneath the compose/edit post window. It makes terminal output much easier to read.

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Thank you for the replies.

michaelk.. In your comment concerning the direct copy/paste... it was not. I did use sudo. Thanks for that reminder.

frank bell.. No, the disk was not mounted. Thanks also for tip concerning the "code" tags. I'll look that up. I can see where those would help a lot.

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Actually, partitioning looks looks ok, all you need to do is format it with a filesystem using mkfs as desired i.e ext4, xfs etc.

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