Formatting Hard Drive In Linux

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 06:04:23AM -0400, jack Garcia wrote:
> 
>    Hi!
> 
> 
> 
>    I  need  to format the hard drive. I know how to do that in Windows. I
>    don't know how to do it in Linux. I'm using Fedora 9.

I doubt you're using Fedora 9; I suspect you mean Red Hat 9?

I also doubt you want to format your hard drive as the term is used in
Unix. What you probably want to do is repartition and/or lay down new
file system(s).

The term "format" as used by Mess-DOS and Windows actually means two
separate things. It means either laying down track and sector
information, typically on unused media. It also means putting a file
system on media, e.g. laying down inodes, superblocks, etc.

In the Unix world, these are two separate processes. The first is
called "formatting", the second "laying down a file system." On a hard
drive and some removable media for a PC, there is an intermediate
step, partitioning, which defines logical drives, upon which you can
lay independent file systems. Partition is what allows multiple
logical hard drives on one physical hard drive. "man fdisk" for how to
do that.

You do not want to format an IDE drive. Early ones had problems with
the format commands, and that was a good way to destroy a drive. Later
drives are safe, but formatting is unnecessary. If you are getting bad
block error messages, then you have either a defective drive and it's
time to replace it, or you have a problem in how the hardware is
tuned. "man hdparm" and "man smartd" for more on that.

You can format SCSI drives, usually with the firmware on your host
adapter. I wouldn't bother; I'd replace it. Occasionally formatting a
floppy will extend its life, but with floppies as cheap as they are,
it is safer to simply replace the floppy. To format a floppy, use the
command "fdformat".

To lay down a file system, use mkfs or mk[e2|dos|??]fs as appropriate
for the file system you want to lay down. "man mkfs" is a good
starting point.

The Linux Documentation Project has a number of documents you may find
useful, such as "Filesystems HOWTO", "Linux Partition HOWTO", and
"Partition-Rescue HOWTO". (http://www.tldp.org/)

I hope I didn't swamp you with too much information.

-- 

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