ext hdd success thx eric

[betty]

hi eric ;
WOW you are great !!! i have about 5 or 6 linux books; sams, redhat's, 
oreilly and none of them were able to adequately explain to me how to do 
the steps to partition, format, mkdir and mount my ext hdd. (not because 
they were not  intrinsically adequate but because i am not at that level 
of learning, it is a real talent to be able to come to the level of the 
learner and explain, especially by email, how to do a given task.

i partitioned my ext hdd (sda) into 3 partions. i formatted the  sda3 as 
linux and of course, that worked fine, being linux and all....
when i tried to format the other 2 partitions here is the message that i 
got.

> [root at bigdog root]# mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
> mkfs.vfat 2.8 (28 Feb 2001)
> mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system

i also did try to use the #mkfs -t vfat -c -L name /dev/sda1
but got the same message.

sooo, should i, 1-make them even smaller and create 4 partitions out of 
the 2? (they are 1-5000 and 5001 -11400 right now)
or, should i 2- physically take the drive over to the m$ machine and try 
to see if i can format it from there???? i hate to do that because i 
don't know dos commands anymore, it being about 25 years since i had to 
use them. but if that is the only way, then i will have to.

finally, whenever,  i do get the drive formatted and i want to move it 
around, i take it that i need to umount it from it's mounted spot right? 
or can i just unplug the usb cable, use it somewhere else and then 
re-plug it back in??

you have been such a help thank you again, this was as much fun as 
figuring out a quadratic equation the first time :))

please feel free to consult me on any dog related questions you may have 
in the future. that is really my area of expertise.
-- 
betty i.
www.WebCanine.com
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