Linux format external USB hard disk Partition
Q. I have an external new hard drive connected using USB port under Red Hat Fedora Core Linux. I want to use it for backup. There are two partition /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. This hard disk was setup and formatted by friend under Windows XP (NTFS partition). Now I want to format and use one partition for Linux and another for Windows XP.
How do I format sda1 without losing data from /dev/sda2?
A. To format /dev/sda1 as Linux ext3 partition use command mkfs.ext3. It is used to create an ext2/ext3 filesystem
Type the command as follows:
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
Before hitting [enter] key make sure you double check partition device name (/dev/sda1). If unsure make backup of important data on USB pen or DVD disk.
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March 16th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Thanks a lot
March 27th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I have put ubuntu onto a hard drive and would like to know if I could format it so I can use windows xp
most obliged
Norman
August 7th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I have a usb drive without any partitions. Win-doze sees a drive but will not partition same. Linux sees the connect, but /dev/sdXX never gets created. Maybe it comes and goes, but there is nothing I can find.
How do you access an empty hard drive out on a usb port?
August 27th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Have you received any replies to your query?
If so can you pass on the solution.
TIA
Lew Lipkin
September 26th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I had a usb drive it was detecting under linux and windows ,but after some time it was not detected under windows, now i want to format the usb under knopix linux