Mount External USB ext3, But Reverting to fat32

dp-danw · 06-01-2009, 03:24 PM

I'd like to mount an external USB drive for full local backups using rsnapshot. This requires a filesystem like ext3 for the hard links in "cp -al" to work. After I prepared my USB drive with fdisk and mkfs.ext3 the drive is still stuck on FAT32 though.

Disto: ClarkConnect 4.x (CentOS equivalent).

Code:

# fdisk -l
...
Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1       60801   488384001    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Using fdisk /dev/sdd1 I make a new primary partition, type 83, and write it and get this alert:

Code:

The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.

This may be obvious, but do I really need a full system restart before it will pick up the new partition information? Is there any other way to lock it in rather than bringing down a production server?

MS3FGX · 06-01-2009, 03:45 PM

If it is an external USB drive, I am assuming you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?

dp-danw · 06-01-2009, 03:51 PM

It's at a remote location, so no, I haven't done that. I'll get someone to cycle the device. Is that considered sufficient for a reboot?

kolodz1 · 06-01-2009, 03:52 PM

Fdisk works on a device, meaning you need to run 'fdisk /dev/sdd' to get the desired effect. You're getting an 'invalid argument' error because /dev/sdd1 points to the partition on the disk and not the disk itself.

You should be able get it all done if you drop the 1 there. Also, make sure you're not working on a mounted filesystem.

dp-danw · 06-01-2009, 04:12 PM

Brilliant!

How did I ever get in the bad habit of adding the "1" at the end. So here's the result after running fdisk /dev/sdd and creating the ext3 partition.

Code:

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
[root@server ~]# fdisk -l
...
Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1       60801   488384001   83  Linux

Much better.