reformatting external drive

[newpenguin100]

I need to re-format an external drive. All the instructions I have found start with figuring out where the drive is mounted (sda, hda, etc.). However, as soon as my RH Linux machine sees the drive's format (ntfs) it decides it won't even mount it in the first place. Gives me an error message. Also, the drive doesn't show up at all via "df -k". Anyone know how to convince RHL to be a little more accepting? Thanks.

[yancek]

Gives me an error message

What is the error message?
What did you do to try to mount it?

[newpenguin100]

To mount it, I just plugged it into the USB socket. Within seconds I got a window saying -- don't remember exact words -- "Drive XXX cannot be mounted because it is formatted with the ntfs operating system."

[jayd512]

Do you happen to see it in the output of

fdisk -l

[newpenguin100]

No, doesn't show up with fdisk -l either.

FWIW, the disk seems to be good. It works just fine on a Windows desktop. I just can't use the ntfs.

Thanks.

[newpenguin100]

OK, got it. I logged in *as root* and then ran fdisk. That gave me what I need. Yes, I have alot to learn. Thanks, all.