[GLLUG] Formatting in Linux

[Matt Graham]

On Thursday 21 October 2004 12:45, after a long battle with technology, 
Michael Harrington wrote:
> I was wondering how [to] format large fat32 partitions(like 160 gb) in
> linux. I get an error when trying the command
>
> mkdosfs -I F32 /dev/hdx

"mkdosfs -F32 /dev/hdxy" , shirley?  You usually want to partition IDE, 
SCSI, USB, and Firewire disks.  Anyway, there's a size limit of 64G for 
FAT32 because something (number of sectors?  number of blocks?) is 
stored in a signed 32-bit int in the filesystem itself.  ISTR a patch 
for the Linux kernel that allowed it to use an unsigned int for this 
value and so use 128G FAT32 filesystems.  They may have changed the 
32-bit thing in the latest versions of 'Doze, but I don't know whether 
the mkdosfs maintainer has taken this change into account.

So:  Partition the disk into multiple 64G partitions, or use a 64-bit 
filesystem (ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, NTFS, ufs, or something.)  
You'll have to make this decision based on the systems you need to use 
this disk on.  If it's a Linux-only system, use ext3/Reiser and 
fuggeddaboudit.  If it's dual-boot, multiple 64G partitions are your 
best bet.  If this is an external USB/Firewire disk, multiple 
partitions are also your best bet.

-- 
   He is a rhythmic movement of the penguins, is Tux.
   --MegaHAL, trained on random gibberish
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see