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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- Last Updated: 12-22-06
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks a lot
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
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?
Have you received any replies to your query?
If so can you pass on the solution.
TIA
Lew Lipkin
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
I have installed USB drive and created a single partition for data only. Everything seems to be working except my ability to move a file to the partition with a file name. Then I need the ability to extract that file or any file on the partition for the purpose of edit, then move back.