Need to format terrabyte USB drive for use with linux OS

do you need it to work with windows as well?

if not, just format it as ext3 or other linux file system.


fdisk /dev/sda   (or whatever it mounts as)

d to delete the existing partiton

n to add a new partition (primary)

w to write


then

mkfs.ext3

I would use LVM initially then reiser.  LVM is more hot-pluggable and migration friendly.  However, there is a read/write NTFS driver available for Linux.  I have seen it work very well.  Find it at:

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

Good Luck,
- gurutc

Heem14: I do not need for Windows at all

The drive is not recognized NTFS by the kernel. How do you get the system to recognize in the first place so you can format it?

gurute: I'm leary.  Any more info you can provide on this LVM or reiser?  I might check out this new NTFS driver which had 12 years of developing.  I want to see more responses first.  Like use Partition Magic or format or HFS for something more simple.

Connect the drive to your machine, then type dmesg at the console. See what it detects the drive as. RH3 is quite old now, so you may need to type modprobe usb-storage (as root) to load the module. Then check dmesg again.

I would NOT use LVM for an external drive. Just format it as ext3. If you're only going to use it with Linux, I would NOT use NTFS. If your existing server is equipped with standard IDE drives the command will probably be mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1 (make sure you check the device name - sda - in the dmesg as suggested before formatting!).

when you plug the drive in, it will pick up a device name. USB gets mounted as a scsi drive.

first scsi drive is /dev/sda
second is /dev/sdb

etc...

so if your system already has 4 scsi drives, it will be the fifth, making it /dev/sde

I'm doing the same thing with a 500GB USB drive, using it to backup my vmware .dsk files on a weekly basis.

Note that if you are moving 800GB, it's going to take some serious time. Just a side thought.

I would stay clear of using NTFS for this purpose. Why use a Microsoft file system, hacked to work with Linux, for a Linux only solution, when there are far superior file systems that are native to Linux. Reiser is a decent choice, but it seems people are straying away from Reiser lately.. Maybe just because of Hans' personal situation.. I dont know.

still isn't being recognized for mounting.  I will get a script to show what I mean.  dmsg gave lots of info but not yet how to mount.  modprobe, fdisk -l, and df -h does not provide mount point.

fwiw, this is what I see in dmesg when I add my device:


usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 1-4: new device found, idVendor=0d49, idProduct=3200
usb 1-4: new device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-4: Product: Maxtor 3200
usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Maxtor Corporation
usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 2CAHPPFF
usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 7
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
  Vendor: Maxtor    Model: 3200              Rev: 0344
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 04
SCSI device sdd: 976773168 512-byte hdwr sectors (500108 MB)

Hi again.

OK.  I need someone to walk me through this step by step.  

My drive cannot mount with it's current fs.  
I get this error: mount:  fs type ntfs not supported by kernel.  Really, I need step-by-step.  How do I change the format of the drive that will not mount.  Do I boot into single user mode or recovery mode with boot disk?  Let's pretend I'm new to linux.

Here is the script - some errors left in cache of other drives mounted:
df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2             3.8G  138M  3.5G   4% /
/dev/sda1             145M   16M  122M  12% /boot
/dev/sda9             965M   17M  899M   2% /home
/dev/sda10             67G  8.2G   56G  13% /opt
none                  2.7G     0  2.7G   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda6             9.5G   49M  9.0G   1% /tmp
/dev/sda8             4.8G  740M  3.8G  17% /usr
/dev/sda7             6.7G   61M  6.3G   1% /usr/local
/dev/sda3              29G  545M   27G   2% /var
/dev/sdb1             269G   15G  241G   6% /sys
/dev/emcpowera1       126G   34M  120G   1% /archive
/dev/emcpowerb1       126G  6.1G  114G   6% /redo
/dev/emcpowerc1       628G  541G   55G  91% /data
#fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdj: 1000.2 GB, 1000207286272 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdj1             1    121601 976760001    7  HPFS/NTFS

# mount /dev/sdj /mnt/flash
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

# modprobe usb-storage

# dmesg

>EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,9), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,10), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,7), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,3), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on sd(8,17), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on emcp(232,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on emcp(232,17), internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on emcp(232,33), internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.