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101 - Create FAT32 on an extarnal HDD

Submitted by admin on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 10:52

1. umount USB HDD.

# umount /media/disk

2. Check the status of HDD.

# fdisk /dev/sdb

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 2 heads, 16 sectors, 123 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 32 * 512 bytes
Device      Boot   Start   End   Blocks   Id   System
/dev/sdb1 *             1   122   1944     1   FAT12

3. Delete the existed partition and create a new one.

Command (m for help) : d
Partition number (1-4) : 1

Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e   extented
  p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-123. default 1):
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-123, default 123):

4.   Enable a boot option.

Command (m for help) : a
Partition number (1-4) : 1

Command  (m for help) : t
Partition number (1-4) : 1
Hex code (type L to list codes) : 6

Command (m for help) : w
The partition table has been altered!

5. Format the partition as FAT32.

# mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdb1
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 May 2005)
#

If you forget "-F 32", it becomes FAT 16.