Help formatting external hdd!

[kp2nite]

I just bought an external hdd with 250 gigs. I plugged it into my pc and formatted it. It works just fine on my pc, but when I plug it into my playstation (while it's in linux), my playstation can't find it. So I went into the terminal and typed "mke2fs -j /dev/sdc" and also "mke2fs -j /dev/sdc1" The first one, when I typed it in, the prompt gave me: will partition entire drive. Continue? (y,n) .... so i put in 'y' and then it gives me: there is no medium to write to. The second command i entered above just gave me: no such directory exists. Are you sure you entered it correctly? Do you guys have any idea of what to do? Thanx!!!

[hacked2123]

mke2fs -j /dev/sdc

I'm not great with linux but yea i typed that...sorry if I wrote it wrong
try
mke2fs -j =/dev/sdc
or
mke2fs -j =./dev/sdc
or
mke2fs -j ./dev/sdc
or
mke2fs -j /dev/sdc -j
or
mke2fs =/dev/sdc -j

If those don't work (you don't need the 1 unless its multipartioned) try the "mke2fs --help" command and read that
If you still can't get it to work write back and I'll try it again on my system (Don't want to leave you hanging on your investment )

(BTW mke2fs -j /dev/sdc literally equates to "format device located on USB - use jornalling (the basis of EXT3))

POST the correction if you find it yourself THANKS

Last edited by hacked2123; 01-27-2007 at 04:57 AM.

[kp2nite]

Thanks you guys! I tried the mke2fs -j =/dev/sdc version first but that didn't work, then i tried the 2nd way and now i can see my 250 gig hdd on the nautilus file system! Thank you very much!

[Desi]

Originally Posted by nicetry I have just order a Ext HDD and I was wondering is 500GB enough and what should I format it too? I am running Linux!!!

LOL. I just recently got my hands on 2 500GB external drives. It 500 alone can be more than enough.
1) connect your drive
2) run the terminal and type: fdisk -l. This shows you what devices are connected.
you'll know the drive when you see it. ex) DEV/sdc (or whatever your drive will be called)....500 GB external.....
3) After you determine this, type in : mkfs.ext3 /dev/xxx
where xxx= your drive name. In this case sdc or something similar.
4) reboot linux, and your good to go. You should be able to click the external drive icon in 'my computer' to get access to the files.

[Desi]

Originally Posted by nicetry ty very much I was confused on the my drive name part lol sorry new to all this I so just played games never got this deep lol

No problemo. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it out.:smile2

[ez345]

does it matter what brand of hdd is used? sorry for the newbie question

[Desi]

Originally Posted by ez345 does it matter what brand of hdd is used? sorry for the newbie question

It shouldn't matter what brand it is. Just make sure that if you're getting an internal hard drive, it's a 2.5" sata harddrive. Or if your getting an external, it can be anything. Be sure that it is SATA as well.

[CJPC]

nicetry -> I am going to assume it is because your not mounting your external drive. BUT, lets try this ->

Connect your USB device type : fdisk -l should show "/dev/sdc1 40gb" (or something along those lines), find the one that matches your drive. then do a mkdir /mnt/exthdd then a mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/exthdd (where /dev/sdc1 = your hdd), then your DD is -> dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/mnt/exthdd/game.iso The issue is , the HDD must be formatted EXT3, NTFS write = dont work by default, and FAT32 = too small!

[ez345]

Hello,

I finally got my external enclosure for my 3.5" external hdd, the only problem is I can't find it in Windows. The 3.5" hdd is a 120 GB Western Digital that I pulled one of my older computers, the hdd fits and everything but Windows says unknown device and I can't reformat to anything. Please someone help me, I have no clue what to do.

[Desi]

Originally Posted by ez345 I finally got my external enclosure for my 3.5" external hdd, the only problem is I can't find it in Windows.

Not sure about this, but did you try getting access through Disk Management? Heres what you can try:

1) right click on the my computer icon located in the desktop(or start panel)
2) click 'manage'
3) Computer management will open up
4) Keep looking down on your left until you see the words 'Disk Management', and click it.
5) on your right you will see a list of disks you currently have installed. Directly below that, you will see Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.
6) Right click on the hard drive that resembles yours and try formatting it from there.

In most instances hard drives not detectable in device manager, do show up in Disk Management. However it may require some partitioning/formatting for it to be recognizable. See if that helps.