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. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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