How to format a hard disk?

**exploder** · 11-09-2005

I have installed a 2GB hard disk on my old celeron 333 which is formatted under NTFS. I want to format it under ReiserFS or Ext3 file systems. I have tried formatting using "cfdisk" but when I select [Delete] option in CFDISK & selecting the type of file system I want by entereing "t" it appears like it has done its job but when i "quit" and check again thru cfdisk /dev/hdb still I can see the new 2GB harddrive is still in NTFS!!!!

**bryansmith** · 11-09-2005

There is a write option somewhere in there. You can make all of your changes to the disk but you need to write them when you are done. If you don't write it, it will appear as if you made a bunch of changes when in fact you didn't.

Bryan

**tellyousomeday** · 11-10-2005

try this program:
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html

**exploder** · 11-10-2005

Cool I have formatted it with Linux file system. But I can't write anything into it. It says its a read only drive!!

**nalg0rath** · 11-10-2005

Mount the partition manually with the following command:

Code:

# mount -o rw /dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1

or you can edit your /etc/fstab to mount it read-write at boot, the entry should look something like this:

Code:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 rw 1 1

just make sure that the fourth section in the etry contains 'rw' and not 'ro'.

If you use KDE there might be an option to rmount the drive as read/write if you right click on it but I'm not sure about that.

**exploder** · 11-10-2005

mmm! even after mounting through "rw" permissions still it says "read only file system"!
I have updated the /etc/fstab so that it mounts automatically when the pc boots.

I am wondering the "Linux" file system in hdb1 which I have created through "cfdisk" is it properly recognised in my pc?

If it doesn't work I will try "parted" as advised by "tellyousomeday".

Thank you fellas for your lightning fast replies

**nalg0rath** · 11-10-2005

Odd, what filesystem did you end up using for the partition? Ext2, Ext3, Reiser?
You dont have to use parted if you're not resizing partitions, it is uneccessarry, Parted is just a GUI frontend for the filesystem tools that are very easy to use from command line - and there is no difference in the result.

To format the partition with ext3:

Code:

# mke2fs -j /dev/hdb1

ext2:

Code:

# mke2fs /dev/hdb1

reiser:

Code:

# mkreiserfs /dev/hdb1

EDIT: It can also be useful to look what the output is of:

Code:

# mount -v -o rw /dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1

to see if you can see what is wrong.

**exploder** · 11-10-2005

Thank you nalg0rath its working now...

**flasher702** · 05-27-2007

Thanks nalg0rath. Seems to be working for me also (ubuntu 6.10 32bit). Partitioned with cfdisk, formatted in ext3 using mke2fs, and mounted. I also had to chmod the file system after it was mounted to get write access to it.

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