Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Hi. I have two hds, hda and hdd. *hdd* contains linux. hda used to contain windows but I've since deleted it (or as much of it as it would let me delete). Now I want to re-format this drive but first I have a number of questions. If I want to use this as a linux data drive, presumably it should be formatted as ext3; how do I do this? More importantly, if I format the drive, will it also remove the flags (if that's the right term) and hence stop the computer from booting properly? If so, how do I replace them? When I run $ parted /dev/hda print, I get
Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-4103.920 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 0.031 4097.460 primary fat32 boot, lba
Information: Don't forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.
Don't know if that is useful information but thought I'd include it, just in case.
you can use fdisk to format the drive. after that you can make a linux filesystem and then mount the drive as you like.
/etc/fstab is used to mount the partitions at boot time. so when you change the partitions you need to update it so that linux doesnt try to mount the partitions with the wrong info
Use cfdisk of fdisk to change hda's filesystem type from FAT32 to linux ext2. Then to format to ext2:
mke2fs /dev/hda
To convert to ext3
tune2fs -j /dev/hda
Cheers eveyone for the suggestions. I would zero out the drive but I've already rammed it virtually full of data. Perhaps that amounts to the same thing??
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.