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I need some assistance in trying to format a USB hard drive to vfat format but can't seem to do so. I am currently using RHEL 5.3. I have tried ...
  1. 09-15-2010 #1
    MB12345
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    Formatting a Drive

    I need some assistance in trying to format a USB hard drive to vfat format but can't seem to do so. I am currently using RHEL 5.3.

    I have tried the following commands and they all come back as "command not found"

    mke2fs vfat /dev/sc1
    fdisk vfat /dev/sdc1
    mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1

    What am I doing incorrectly?? Can someone please point me in the right direction??

    Thanks
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  2. 09-15-2010 #2
    MikeTbob
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    Try using the "su" account.
    Code:
    gksu mke2fs vfat /dev/sc1
    (password)
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  3. 09-15-2010 #3
    MB12345
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    Have already logged in using su so I should be having root priveleges.

    Don't know what else is wrong.
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  4. 09-15-2010 #4
    MikeTbob
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    Try
    Code:
    /sbin/mke2fs vfat /dev/sc1
    Last edited by MikeTbob; 09-15-2010 at 03:14 AM. Reason: Added code tags
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  5. 09-15-2010 #5
    oz
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    Welcome to the forums!

    Also, make sure you have dosfstools installed.
    oz

    → new members/users: read this first | new member faq
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  6. 09-15-2010 #6
    MB12345
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    Okay I just tried that and I get this error:

    mke2fs: invalid blocks count - /dev/sdc1

    That means mke2fs worked somehow??

    Invalid block count?? There were problems with the drive thats why I was trying to format it to begin with
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  7. 09-15-2010 #7
    MikeTbob
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    You need to read up on the badblocks command.
    badblocks(8): search device for bad blocks - Linux man page
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