Josef Lowder wrote:
> I received a small 38-Gig external harddrive as a gift
> and it is apparently formatted with an ntfs file system.
>
> It mounts automatically when I plug it in to my Mandriva
> system USB port, and I can read the files that are there,
> but I cannot write to it as it gives a message "read only
> file system."
>
> So, what would be the best way to format it as a fat 32
> so I can plug it in and use it on either my Linux system
> or on my xp laptop?
>
First unplug the drive.
# fdisk -l
This will tell you which drive you dont want to format.
Plug in the other drive.
# fdisk -l
Now we know how your system recognizes the drive we want to format.
Now unmount the drive
# umount /dev/sdx # or whatever its called in place of sdx
# fdsik /dev/sdx # delete the ntfs part. and recreate it win95 LBA
# partprobe # cause the kernel to reread the partition table
# mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx # create a filesystem on it.
You should be able to remove and reinsert it and be in business.
I run Mandriva 2008 and have had problems with flash drives and fat
partitions and for me to be able to use them in both os's I had to
format them from windows.
- --
Joey Prestia
L. G. Mirror Coordinator
http://linuxamd.com
Main Site
http://linuxgazette.net
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